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General
George Wade
General
George Wade, (1673-1748), British field marshal, was the son
of Jerome Wade of Kilavally, Westmeath, and entered the British
army in 1690. He was present at Steinkirk in 1692, and in 1695
he became captain. In 1702 he served in Marlborough's army,
earning particular distinction at the assault on the citadel
of Liege, and in 1703 he became successively major and lieutenant-colonel
in his regiment (later the 10th Foot).
In
1704, with the temporary rank of colonel, he served on Lord
Galway's staff in Portugal. Wade distinguished himself at the
siege of Alcantara in 1706, in a rearguard action at Villa Nova
in the same autumn (in which, according to Galway, his two battalions
repulsed twenty-two allied squadrons), and at the disastrous
battle of Almanza on the 25th of April 1707.
He
had now risen to the command of a brigade, and on the following
1st of January he was promoted brigadier-general in the British
army. His next service was as second in command to James (1st
earl) Stanhope in the expedition to Minorca in 1708. In 1710
he was again with the main Anglo-allied army in Spain, and took
part in the great battle of Saragossa in August, after which
he was promoted major-general and given a command at home.
The
Jacobite outbreak of 1715 brought him into a new role of military
governor. He twice detected important Jacobite conspiracies,
and on the second occasion procured the arrest of the Swedish
ambassador in London, Count Gyllenborg. In 1719 he was second
in command of the land forces in the successful " conjunct
" military and naval expedition to Vigo.
In
1724 he was sent to the Highlands to make a thorough investigation
of the country and its people, and just two years later, having
been appointed commander-in-chief to give effect to his own
recommendations, he began the system of metalled roads which
is his chief title to fame, and is commemorated in the lines
" Had you seen these roads before they were made, You would
lift up your hands and bless General Wade."
In the course
of this important engineering work Wade superintended the construction
of no less than 40 stone bridges. At the same time, slowly and
with the tact that came of long experience, he disarmed the
clans. In 1742 he was made a privy councillor and lieutenant-general
of the ordnance, and in 1743 field marshal. In this year he
commanded the British contingent in Flanders, and was associated
in the supreme command with the duke d'Aremberg, the leader
of the Austrian contingent. The campaign, as was to be expected
when the enemy was of one nation, superior in numbers and led
by Saxe, was a failure, and Wade, who was seventy years of age
and in bad health, resigned the command in March 1744. George
II. promptly made him commander-in-chief in England, and in
that capacity Field Marshal Wade had to deal with the Jacobite
insurrection of 1745, in which he was utterly baffled by the
perplexing rapidity of Prince Charles Edward's marches. On the
appointment of the duke of Cumberland as commander-in-chief
of the forces, Wade retired. He died on the 14th of March 1748.
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