His report so alarmed the government that he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of North Britain, to bring peace to the glens
This year marks the 350th anniversary of the birth of George Wade (1673–1748), an Anglo-Irish soldier who made his name in the English army yet left his legacy in Scotland by building the country’s first road network.
After joining the army as a teenager, distinguished service on the continent saw Wade rise rapidly through the ranks to Major-General. In Britain it was the age of Jacobitism, when Scottish armies invaded England in support of the exiled Stuart king, and in 1715 Wade found himself quelling Jacobite support in Somerset, of all places.
By now in his forties, he turned to politics, became MP for Bath, and even found time to
