Wolfe, CHARLES

Wolfe, CHARLES, was born at Dublin, 14th December 1791. On the death of his father, a Kildare gentleman, the family came to England, and the boy received his chief education at Winchester. In 1809 he entered the university of Dublin, gained a scholarship, and in 1814 took his B.A. In 1817 his Burial of Sir John Moore was suggested by Southey's impressive account of it in the Edinburgh Annual Register, and soon after found its way anonymously into the newspapers. So admired was the poem that even whilst the name of its author remained unknown, and it was ascribed to Campbell, Byron, &c., it had won for itself a secure place in the heart of the nation. Wolfe in 1817 became curate of Ballyclog, in Tyrone, and then rector of Donoughmore. Symptoms of consumption appearing, he tried in search of health, successively, England, the south of France, and finally the sheltered Cove of Cork, and here he died, 21st February 1823. His literary Remains, consisting of sermons chiefly and poems, were published with a memoir in 1825 by Archdeacon Russell.