Lieutenant General Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe was born in York in 1685, although his family was Irish, originally from Limerick and spelling their name Woulfe, and now Protestant. Edward was commissioned in 1700 and fought in Flanders, in Marlborough’s army, rising to brigade major. He also took part in the campaign against the Jacobites in 1715. In 1726 he married Henrietta Thompson and the following year their famous son, James Wolfe, was born. They lived in Westerham, Kent, then moved to Greenwich in 1738. Edward was promoted to colonel and put in command of a newly raised regiment of marines.
In 1740 his regiment sailed for South America from the Isle of Wight. James was expected to go with the expedition but fell ill. However it was fortunate that he stayed in England because the expedition made a disastrous attack on Cartagena on the coast of Columbia, close to Panama in the Caribbean. It was the rainy season and most of the army became sick, many dying. The attack had to be abandoned and they headed north for Santiago on the eastern end of Cuba. This failed as well so the fleet sailed home. Colonel Wolfe survived this disastrous campaign, and on 25 April 1745 he was appointed Colonel of the 8th King’s Regiment, promoted to lieutenant general in 1747.
He was too ill to join the army on the continent, so missed out on the Battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy. But when the second Jacobite Rising occurred in 1745 he was sent with troops to Berwick, but did not make contact with the enemy as they marched south. Lieutenant General Edward Wolfe died on 26 March 1759, the year that his son James led the army in their successful attack on Quebec, so that father and son died in the same year.
The portrait is dated c1730, by Sir James Thornhill, showing General Wolfe in military uniform; a plain red coat with gilt buttons worn over a red waistcoat well decorated with gold lace. The painting is in Quebec House, Westerham in Kent, owned by the National Trust.

Regimental Details | Colonels