Wolfe, James

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Wolfe, James (1727–59). Born in Westerham (Kent) into a military family, Wolfe was an intelligent and articulate professional soldier. He fought at Culloden and with distinction in the Rochefort expeditionary force. Marked out by William Pitt for Canadian service, he served bravely at Louisbourg in 1758, then returned to London, where he dined with Pitt and Temple, exhibiting ‘gasconade and bravado’. Appointed a major-general, he led the assault on Quebec in 1759. Suffering from poor health, he was also criticized for poor generalship by fellow-officers. However, his tactical success and youthful death in victory on 13 September 1759 ensured his entry to the pantheon of British heroes, into patriotic street literature and folk memory. His call to his soldiers to ‘remember what their country expects from them’, echoed in Nelson's Trafalgar signal, and his statement that he would rather have written Gray's ‘Elegy’ than capture Quebec, are not forgotten.

Richard C. Simmons

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