One of the ‘great fighters’ in American history hailed from north Derbyshire, as Barry M Marsden reports.
IT WAS A LONG WAY from Stubbing Court, Wingerworth to the wilderness of North America during the Seven Years’ War, but Henry Gladwin not only travelled that vast distance but took part in fierce battles against the French and American Indians. He also held Fort Detroit during an Indian rebellion that threatened British rule around the Great Lakes. Major (later Major General) Gladwin has largely been forgotten in England – he has no mention in the Dictionary of National Biography – though an American historian noted that his part in the Fort Detroit siege ‘marks him as one of the few great Indian fighters in our history…