William Tate (soldier)

Chef de brigade (colonel) William Tate was the Irish-American commander of the French forces known as La Légion Noire which invaded Britain in 1797, resulting in the Battle of Fishguard. The 1200 to 1400-strong force landed at Carregwastad Point, near the Welsh port of Fishguard, on February 22 but surrendered three days later. This was the last invasion of the British mainland by foreign forces. He disliked the British because his family was murdered by pro-British Native Americans in the American War of Independence, and advocated Irish republicanism. Many historians, following E. H. Stuart Jones, the author of The Last Invasion of Britain, (1950) have suggested that William Tate was about 70 years old in 1797; he was in fact 44.