FREDDIE MATTHEWS: I think it's fair to say both these boys

coming from military families, they're young boys like any

other young boys.

It's likely they would have been playing soldiers nearby.

The architecture of Wolfe's mind, the architecture of his

military and tactician's mind. I think he was cutting his teeth

and he was forming that architecture here in Westerham.

JAMES GRASBY : In 1746, a battle raged in Scotland.

It was short, under an hour, but it was bloody.

Hundreds of lives were lost.

The Jacobites, mainly Scots, were fighting for control of the

throne against British government forces.

Among the government forces number, a 19-year-old James

Wolfe.

The boy who'd played soldiers in the woods in Westerham with his

best friend was now on the battlefield for real.

Have you ever imagined being a fly on the wall of history? Join

me for an inside view of the stories of people, places and

moments that made us.

I'm historian James Grasby. Lean in for a tale from time. Back

When.

I'm fascinated by how our childhoods shape us.

What you spend your time doing, who you spend your time with,

where and how you live, all play a part in determining your

future.

You may know General James Wolfe as victorious hero at the Battle

Of Quebec in Canada.

He led British troops fighting against the French there. But

the victory came at a cost, and at the age of just 32, he died

on the battlefield.

It's what he is most remembered for. His childhood home in

Westerham in Kent was renamed Quebec House in his honour.

But this podcast, in partnership with National Trust For

Scotland, looks back at his early years and his involvement

as a teenager at the Battle Of Culloden.

Wolfe had already seen action by the time he was fighting against

the Jacobite rising at Culloden in 1746.

He'd already started being noticed by his superiors, and

was already climbing the ranks. He seemed to be living his life

in double time.

I'm in Westerham, not far from Sevenoaks, and there's a crow

flies 25 miles, I guess, from the centre of London.

I've just driven through the town where General Wolfe is

celebrated. In the garage, the pub!

I can see there's a sign there, Quebec Square. There's brass

plaque on the wall, the home of General James Wolfe from 1727 to

1738.

If I can just get a glimpse of it over this high wall. It's

like a little crown, three stories, sash windows, a

delicious brick house.

Hello.

GHAZALA JABEEN: Hello.

JAMES GRASBY : Ghazala, how do you do? I'm James.

GHAZALA JABEEN: Nice to meet you.

JAMES GRASBY : I love your House!

GHAZALA JABEEN: Oh, thank you! Welcome!

JAMES GRASBY : Oh, look at that, a panelled room and a musket

over the fireplace. Everything you would expect from the

outside.

Ghazala Jabeen is Collections and House Officer at Quebec

House. She's going to show me round, but I'm also meeting

curator Freddie Matthews.

Freddie!

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: Hello James.

JAMES GRASBY : How do you do? I'm very thrilled to meet you!

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: It's brilliant to host you here today because

it's a hidden jewel, I think.

JAMES GRASBY : I saw on the bronze plaque outside that the

period of occupation by the Wolfe family was very short.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: Like anyone, your formative years are in some

ways the most important.

So this is where Wolfe lived for the first 11 years of his life

with his parents Edward and Henrietta and his little brother

Edward and he'd play with his best friend George Warde who

lived at the much grander house down the road known as

Squerryes-

Squerryes Court.

JAMES GRASBY : I'm gripped by childhood homes. Woolsthorpe,

Isaac Newton's House. Isaac Newton as a boy played in the

garden. It became a laboratory for that boy.

Thomas Hardy at his birthplace in Bockhampton. He used the

countryside as a gazetteer of places and people from which he

then drew his novels.

When Wolfe grew up here as a boy, how did he use the

landscape here?

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: Even though we don't have many sources at all

to turn to about what exactly he was doing with his friend George

Warde outside, I think it's fair to say both these boys coming

from military families, they're young boys like any other young

boys, it's likely they would have been playing soldiers

nearby.

So similarly, the architecture of Wolfe's mind, the

architecture of his military and tactician's mind.

I think he was cutting his teeth and he was forming that

architecture here in Westerham.

I always find it fascinating to go for walks in the countryside

near here and look at the landscape.

There's flat open spaces that in some places are reminiscent of

Culloden and there's these pine laden hills where you get these

almost cliff-like edges around Squerryes Park that feel like

the cliffs of Quebec in Canada.

JAMES GRASBY : Ghazala and Freddie, I can't wait to see

more of the House.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: After you.

GHAZALA JABEEN: So, James, let's go to the parlour room.

JAMES GRASBY : Lead the way.

Bit of a step. Lovely old oak floor. Quite a low door. Panel

door. And another beautiful panelled room. But what is

stunning and sensational in this room is an enormous bronze bust.

Is this the man himself?

GHAZALA JABEEN: Yes, it's a bust of James Wolfe. He was

supposedly over six foot. Red hair. Bright piercing blue eyes.

The long nose. The kind of weak chin. The slanting forehead.

JAMES GRASBY : He cuts a striking figure, doesn't he, and

quite a dash with his hair swept back and long curls running over

his shoulders.

He's presented as a strong man in the bust that honours him,

but he was not a well man, according to accounts in

letters.

And what can be gleaned from the contents of a handwritten

cookbook belonging to Wolfe's mother Henrietta suggests he was

ill in childhood too.

After the birth of her two sons, it starts to become a recipe

book not just for the things the family may have eaten at the

dinner table, but for medicinal cures as well.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: I think we'd say today he had several

underlying health conditions. He managed to mask them pretty well

with characteristic stoicism and grit, particularly to his men he

had to lead by example.

But behind the scenes, he was battling with things like

Rheumatism with dysentery, eventually what was known as the

gravel, essentially kidney stones.

There's a frequent tone of melancholy in his writing, even

sort of fatalism at times, and many people suggest that, you

know, what we now call depression, you can see in some

of his experiences through his writing.

JAMES GRASBY : Despite his health, he was not to be beaten

by it.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: This was a time that you couldn't win

battles and wars through sheer brawn and military firepower

alone.

You needed science on your side, you needed reason and tactics

and a structured approach to warfare and this is something

that Wolfe really personified.

In his own writing was very humble and thought that he

wasn't intelligent at all but he has a tutor to teach him maths

and geometry which he'd later use when calculating the angles

of his cannons and how to scale up the cliffs onto the plains of

Abraham in Quebec.

JAMES GRASBY : Death was to come for Wolfe on the battlefield of

Quebec, but maybe it was inevitable that he would die

fighting.

I've read it somewhere, a military historian describing

the various phases that a soldier goes through

psychologically.

When you go into combat as a young soldier, you think, it's

not going to happen to me.

When you've been in combat for a bit, you begin to think, it

might happen to me.

Then there gets a point when you think, It will happen to me and

you prepare yourself for death, in a sense that Wolfe,

struggling with his own health, had already got to that stage in

his life where he knew death was inevitable.

And do you think that that idea brought about his attitude to

confronting the enemy and being visible at battle, that he

didn't have a fear of death.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: There's definitely a fatalism in a lot

of his writing.

A lot of people have said that that's what spurred him on at

Quebec in what some perceived as a slightly reckless way, was

knowing that his days were numbered.

But then again, he'd seen more action than most of his

contemporaries by the age of 22.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: Although Wolfe was born into a rare era of

peace, That was really just like a sort of an interlude in a far

longer ongoing conflict.

I'm Dr Stephen Brumwell. I'm an independent historian and the

author of a biography of James Wolfe called Paths of Glory.

By the time Wolfe had served at Culloden, he'd already seen

considerable active service.

At the age of 16, he was in action at the Battle Of

Dettingen, where George II commanded his army in person,

the last British monarch to do so.

JAMES GRASBY : The Battle of Dettingen is described as a

lucky escape for George II and his British forces, including

16-year-old Wolfe and his younger brother.

Wolfe's regiment was involved in heavy fighting there, both sides

using muskets, a forebearer to the modern-day rifle.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: Wolfe writes a letter to his father describing

how he saw heads and limbs flying from where the enemy

cannonballs were coming in. So, from a very early age, he was

used to seeing the carnage of war.

JAMES GRASBY : Close by Wolfe during the heavy fighting at

Dettigen was King George II's son, the Duke Of Cumberland.

And the Duke Of Cumberland would go on to lead troops at the

Battle Of Culloden just three years later.

Cumberland had noticed Wolfe, and not long after, Wolfe is

rising through the ranks.

We're now going up what has to be the most solidly built oak

stairwell.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: When the National Trust gets round to

publishing 100 best staircases, this would be my vote for number

one.

JAMES GRASBY : You're right, Freddie!

We're heading upstairs to meet Wolfe's parents, Edward and

Henrietta, to find out how strong an influence they had on

him.

Going up into one of the principal rooms, I'd guess over

the entrance hall, looking out over the street that we arrived

by, what a lovely room, another panelled room.

And in the drawing room, portraits of Edward and

Henrietta, as well as Henrietta's cookbook. And among

the recipes for dinners, those concoctions for curing

illnesses.

GHAZALA JABEEN: So you've got orange water, gooseberry wine.

JAMES GRASBY : I can see something there. Take green

snails, soak them in beer. A cure for consumption.

GHAZALA JABEEN: It shows what type of mother Henrietta was.

And to me, she's a present individual in the life of both

of her sons.

A caring woman, but an individual who knew what she

wanted for both of her boys.

JAMES GRASBY : There's also letters stored digitally that

shed more light.

GHAZALA JABEEN: When Wolfe was in his early 20s, he wished to

marry, but Henrietta was determined not to allow the

marriage because her dowry wasn't large enough or her

mother was a wanton woman.

And Wolfe wasn't very happy. But later he found a young woman

that he was engaged to, who his mother very much approved of.

The letters kind of reveal a beautiful relationship between

mother and son.

JAMES GRASBY : There are also surviving letters that Wolfe

wrote to his father that show a very different relationship.

Edward Wolfe was a British army officer and he was Wolfe's route

into the military.

GHAZALA JABEEN: His letters to his father were formal, so he'd

ask about military tactics and campaigns.

He'd also ask his father for money. A soldier's pay wasn't

great to live on. His father rightly had an impact on his

career, but I feel his mother was the primary individual.

There's a connection, there's love, and it goes beyond your

childhood. So she shaped him as a boy and whatever influence

that she had, it continued to be that he respected her right till

the end of his life.

And I think you don't always see that when you talk about

military leaders, you talk about their success and the battles

and the legacy, but it's the social element who made them and

why, which I think is very kind of endearing and quite important

because you understand their character, not just their kind

of success.

JAMES GRASBY : The young General Wolfe had been shaped by his

strong mother, his military father and his boyhood

friendship with George.

And now the boy soldier is entering adulthood. As the

18-year-old Wolfe is taking part in military campaigns overseas,

the 1745 Jacobite Rising is gathering steam.

The Jacobites' campaign started nearly 60 years before the

Battle Of Culloden in 1689, in an attempt to put James Stuart,

James VII, as he was called in Scotland, or James II, as he was

known in England, back on the throne.

By the time 1745 comes around, the Jacobites, supporters of

James, Jacobus being Latin for James, were rallying to put his

grandson on the throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, also

known as Bonnie Prince Charlie.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: The second Jacobite rebellion really got

underway in the summer of 1745. Initially, the British

government in London didn't take the uprising that seriously.

JAMES GRASBY : But two major defeats in the run-up to the

Battle Of Culloden at Prestonpans and Falkirk

eventually leads the British government to sit up and take

notice.

They replace the commanders who've been defeated and they

bring more troops back from overseas to bolster their

number.

And this is the point Wolfe is brought into the picture. And

the commander in charge now, the Duke Of Cumberland.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: The British army under Cumberland is

gradually being reinforced, moving north, looking for a

final encounter with the Jacobites, which will settle the

situation once and for all.

JAMES GRASBY : That encounter, the Battle Of Culloden, would

come on the 16th of April 1746. It was also the Duke Of

Cumberland's birthday, and the Jacobites knew that.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: It was decided that because the British army

had been celebrating the birthday of the Duke Of

Cumberland and had been issued with an extra ration of brandy

to toast his health, that somehow they'd be in their tents

sleeping off these excesses.

And they would be particularly vulnerable to a night time

attack on their camp.

Orchestrating this maneuver was extremely difficult because this

is done in pitch darkness.

It's done involving thousands of men.

So what basically happens is that before they reach their

objective, it becomes clear they're not going to get there

before daybreak, before the British wake up and ready to

receive them.

So they have to March all the way back again.

Many of the Jacobites are dog tired, they're hungry, they've

been on their feet all night.

They just want to go to sleep.

They're in the worst possible condition to fight a battle that

day. Unfortunately for them, that's what happens.

JAMES GRASBY : The Jacobites under Charles Edward Stuart or

Bonnie Prince Charlie had lost their advantage and now British

forces under Cumberland were in the stronger position.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: Cumberland's men had been rested, they'd been

fed, their morale was high, whereas the Jacobite Morale was

low.

Fighting at Culloden, in the opinion of a lot of people,

apart from Charles Edward Stuart himself, it was the wrong day,

it was the wrong place to fight. It was an open moorland.

It was the worst possible place to use Highlanders.

But it was the best possible place for regular British

infantry and cavalry and artillery to be used. It was

like a conventional battlefield.

According to Wolfe, the battle only lasted about an hour. And

that was from the opening artillery bombardment, which the

British unleashed upon the Jacobites.

The Jacobite forces stood under this barrage for quite a while

before they couldn't take any more.

Finally attacked across the moor. But the attack itself, the

charge, the Highland charge, if you want to call it that, was

very uneven because different units progressed at a different

pace because the moor itself was very boggy.

And it was only on the right wing of the Jacobite army that

the charge actually connected.

JAMES GRASBY : And right at the point the lines connected,

Wolfe's regiment.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: But Wolfe himself wasn't with his regiment

that day.

JAMES GRASBY : Wolfe was aide de camp, the assistant to a higher

ranking officer, Henry Hawley, who was leading the cavalry.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: He was out on the left flank. He wasn't

involved in that extremely bloody fight.

JAMES GRASBY : Hawley and Wolfe's involvement comes later.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: When the Jacobites are finally, they're

retreating, that's when the cavalry are unleashed.

This is traditionally in warfare of that period. This is when the

heaviest casualties occur because people aren't defending

themselves. They're throwing away their weapons. They're

running for their lives.

That's when the cavalry who are on horseback, of course,

overtake them, start cutting them down with their swords.

This is the episode of the battle that that Wolfe would

have been involved in.

And there's a long established story involving Wolfe. In

connection with this, which basically is that the Duke Of

Cumberland saw a Highland officer lying bloody on the

ground and this Highlander looked up at him with a defiant

look in his eye and Cumberland says to Wolfe, shoot me this

rebel dog.

And Wolfe says, I would rather surrender my commission than

commit such a deed.

JAMES GRASBY : The story, one of the most well-known involving

Wolfe, is shrouded in myth and there's no evidence it actually

happened.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: There's evidence that something like it

happened, but you need to swap Hawley for Cumberland.

JAMES GRASBY : It's more probable it was Hawley who

delivered the order, not only because it was Hawley who was

leading the cavalry, but because Wolfe was less likely to disobey

Cumberland.

STEPHEN BRUMWELL: If Wolfe had refused a request from

Cumberland, he would have been out of favour with Cumberland,

but he never was.

So I think the episode did happen, but it involved Hawley

rather than Cumberland.

But the upshot, of course, is that even though Wolfe and I

think it probably was Wolfe, refused to shoot the officer.

Hawley just said to the nearest soldier, is your musket loaded?

Yes, sir. Shoot me that man. And he did.

The Battle Of Culloden pretty much put an end, a bloody full

stop, if you want to put it that way, to the Jacobite Rebellion.

There was talk about regrouping, fighting on, but basically

Charles Edward Stuart, he'd always thought that his

Highlanders were invincible.

They'd won at Prestonpans, they'd won at Falkirk, and they

were defeated at Culloden.

After that, his interest in becoming the monarch of Great

Britain, he didn't think it was going to happen.

So effectively, that was the end of the Jacobite rebellion.

JAMES GRASBY : In the aftermath of the Battle Of Culloden, the

British government enforced laws designed to integrate Scotland,

specifically the Scottish Highlanders, with the rest of

Britain. But in reality, the laws were a suppression of

Scottish culture.

Highlanders no longer had the right to own arms or wear

Highland dress such as kilts.

Landlords or lairds who had been involved with the uprising had

to forfeit their estates and abandon their way of life.

And so it seems strange that a couple of years after the Battle

Of Culloden, Wolfe is back in Scotland, having been posted

there.

And he stays for eight years, even making friends with some

Highlanders.

Fast forward to 1759, and Wolfe is commanding British forces,

attempting to overthrow the French in Canada and there are

Highlanders among his men.

And fighting for British forces meant you could wear Highland

dress.

So we're leaving the drawing room, down this beautiful,

massively built oak stairway. Turning my back on the front

door and into a back room.

Woo! Freddie, you are naughty!

I've turned around and have been surprised to see a Highlander

behind me. What a magnificent sight.

The woolen socks, which are fantastically brightly coloured.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: As is the tartan kilt, the sporran, the

claymore, the traditional double-edged sword.

JAMES GRASBY : And so Highlanders fought for Wolfe at

the Battle Of Quebec.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: If it hadn't have been for his closeness to

the Fraser Highlanders, it could be said that maybe the battle

would have gone a completely different way.

JAMES GRASBY : And the contribution is recognised in a

well-known painting of Wolfe's death.

Several figures are huddled around Wolfe as he takes his

last breath. One is a Fraser Highlander.

It's a painting, although not entirely accurate, that saw

Wolfe remembered for being a soldier's soldier.

Over your shoulder Freddie I can see a very famous picture the

death of Wolfe.

He's lying as if he's descended from the cross and in the

background there is a soldier advancing about to give the

signal that the Battle Of Quebec is won.

FREDDIE MATTHEWS: This is one of those images that everyone's

seen and if they don't know that they've seen it, they have seen

it.

You've seen it somewhere!

Because this is one of the most widely distributed popular

images of all of the 18th century.

This is the moment where Wolfe famously utters his last words,

God be praised, I may rest in peace, and then he closes his

eyes and passes away.

JAMES GRASBY : He was struck by musket balls, wasn't he? I think

there was one in his sort of lower stomach, abdomen, who got

hit in the wrist. And then the mortal wound was a musket ball

they received to the chest that killed him.

Pretty ghastly end.

GHAZALA JABEEN: It was.

But one thing you can say, that he was with his men. He rallied

his men.

He didn't step aside and he wasn't watching from afar.

He was a soldier's soldier.

And that's what I thought was very important about him. He

understood battle and he understood what it meant.

And, you know, I'm sure he'd made friendships with some of

the men. He cared for the men that he was in charge of.

So although it's a terrible way to go, if you're looking at it

objectively, it's in that context, the context of the 18th

century, it's a heroic way to go.

And that's why the paintings are so magnificently done. It's

portraying a hero. And it's a brilliant piece of propaganda.

How do you get people to support these very costly wars? You

create a hero.

JAMES GRASBY : That's a great way to contextualise it. I

absolutely see the different angles and pictures that

different peoples will have of it.

GHAZALA JABEEN: And so much of what we've spoken about in his

life, his childhood, his parents, his friends, the people

he surrounded himself with, formed him to become an iconic

figure.

Whatever the perceptions are today of him, he made a mark.

JAMES GRASBY : If you want to hear more about the Battle Of

Culloden, we've hooked up with the National Trust For Scotland

to tell the story of the battle and the build-up to it from two

different points of view.

I'd encourage you to have a listen to Uncovering Culloden,

the general who helped shape the Jacobite uprising, a Love

Scotland podcast.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Back When, and I'll

see you next time.