[2] George Wolfe was born 16 December 1859 at Bishopland, Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare, the younger son among two sons and one daughter of Theobald George Samuel Wolfe (1815–1872), landowner, of Bishopland and Forenaghts, Naas, County Kildare, and his wife Elizabeth Wolfe (née Ball)[1] In 1870, his father had inherited the extensive Forenaghts estate.
[1] He succeeded as head of the family at Forenaghts on the death of his elder brother, Richard Wolfe in 1885.
In 1888, he married Emily Leeman (née Smethurst) (d. 1910), only child of Richard Smethurst of Elterbeck Hall, Chorley, Lancashire, and widow of Joseph Johnson Leeman, MP for York.
[1] In 1882, he was commissioned lieutenant in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, and served at the Battle of Tell El Kebir in the Anglo-Egyptian War (being awarded a medal with clasp and the Khedive's Star), and in the 1884–1885 Sudanese war.
After service with the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars (1885–1890), he retired from the army with the rank of major.