He organized the first attempted British settlement in the New World

The man who organised the first attempt at a British settlement of the colonies was Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a politician and courtier who wanted to settle America so as to extend England's land under Queen Elizabeth I. Raleigh's brother, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, had already sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and claimed Newfoundland. Walter Raleigh wanted to extend his borther's work by  founding a permanent settlement of English people. Raleigh named the intended American lands Virginia, after his queen, but did not sail with the colonists when they left England on April 27 1584. Instead, he selected Captain John White to lead the expedition and another 150 men and women accompanied him. They landed in present-day South Carolina at Roanoke but famously vanished in 1590.