Later, we scoured the picture for clues that would help us give a name to this anonymous European soldier. We subscribe to the maxim, "Don't look for an exotic explanation until all local possibilities have been checked out and dismissed!"

We were almost immediately certain he was not European but from the era of the 2nd Riel Rebellion of 1885. He wore a dark uniform and pillbox of the artillery units of the time, and of some members of the Canadian militia.

He wore the snake buckle of the British Army of the era.

He also cradled a swagger stick across his knees, identifying him as an officer, and so a leading member in his community. This single cultural item alone, steered us away from all the privates who might be a candidate for his identity.

Besides, in the 1880s, no Ontario farmer could afford, or have an interest in, commissioning an oil painting of a soldier son who was more interested in chasing off after some fool Indians in the North West Territory, when there was plenty of spring plowing to be done, not to mention milking, or clearing more trees off the back forty!

An oil painting was more likely to be done by a family who thought highly of having exactly those kinds of mementoes of illustrious family members doing the "Nation's business."

The canvas is mounted on a stretcher with wedges. Some canvas repairs have been done sometime in its life. All indications that no expense was spared, or love denied, to preserve this memento of a proud moment in a family's history.

The records show that 48 volunteers went off from the Lindsay area's 45th Militia Regiment to join the army sent to put down the Riel Rebellion. Because of the swagger stick we dismissed the 45 noncommissioned members of the unit.

Three officers shepherded the men from Lindsay to Kingston where they were incorporated into the Midland Battalion: Maj. John Hughes, Capt. JC Grace, and Lt. George E. Laidlaw.

We believe the portrait is of Lt. George E Laidlaw, the eldest son of George Laidlaw, of Lindsay, Ontario.

George Laidlaw (1828-1889) George Laidlaw (1828-1889), was head of one of the most prominent families in the Lindsay area. He had made his fame and fortune promoting the building of railways. We believe he was immensely proud of his son's leadership role during the Riel Rebellion that threatened every value he held dear. "An energetic railway promoter and builder, Laidlaw was born in Scotland and emigrated to Toronto in 1855. He soon prospered as a grain merchant and a wharf-owner, and after 1866 gained prominence as a convincing advocate of the commercial benefits of railways emanating from Toronto. Between 1869-1873 Laidlaw skillfully negotiated the completion of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway to Owen Sound, and the Toronto and Nipissing to Coboconk. As managing director of the Credit Valley Railway, he vigorously opposed rival railway interests and deftly marshaled regional and Toronto support to insure the line's completion in 1880 from St. Thomas, Elora and Orangeville. Dedicated to agrarian improvement, Laidlaw retired to his nearby ranch, where he raised pure-bred livestock. " (From Ontario Government plaque) We believe he chose to express his pride in his eldest son, and his patriotism, by commissioning the above portrait of George E Laidlaw. Did he do it to express his pride in the family's - indeed if not the Lindsay area's - only graduate from Canada's prestigious Royal Military College, or of his son's service to defend the homeland against those rebellious ingrates out west? He must have been especially proud - as a railway man - of the enormously important role that the newly built railway played in getting the army to the scene of the "rebellion" and restoring order. In 1870, before the railway went west, it had taken months for the army to trudge through the wilderness to get to the site of the troubles. Now, in 1885, some troops from Winnipeg were assembling in Saskatchewan within days; eastern troops arrived in a little over a week later. This was blessed progress to George Laidlaw.

George E. Laidlaw (1860-1927)

George E. Laidlaw - who we assume is the subject of the colour portrait - was a recent graduate of the Royal Military College, at Kingston, Ontario.

Suddenly the Riel Rebellion broke out in the far west.

George was wounded at Batoche right, being shot in the right calf, while he was part of the famous Canadian militia charge that routed the Métis, while the British General Middleton was ignominiously eating breakfast.

George Laidlaw returned to Ontario where he started a ranch, which he called The Fort, on Balsam Lake in Victoria County. There he raised cattle and wrote for small journals.

When the Boer War broke out he became a Lieutenant in Lord Strathcona's Horse, and served in South Africa.

 

Great Canadian Historic Site	The Batoche cemetery, with the mass grave of nine Métis buried here after the battle. No doubt George would recount, with pride, for many years, how his men had taken three days to beat back the "enemy" in the trenches in the cemetery and around the church. Go to Batoche What George wouldn't say is that, what he, and the Canadian army of the time (Canadian militia) were actually doing, was fighting an entire population - Canada's unique Métis people - and evicting them from their property, their farms, and burning their homes and barns so they would have no place to shelter their families in the coming winter. The Métis leader, Louis Riel, would be hanged. The other Métis people would flee for their lives - many to the United States for safety!
Battlefield, Batoche, Saskatchewan, May 1885
Orig. site - Image Size - 23 cm Found - Batoche, SK
It would take the Métis 100 years to recover as a people, and to slowly filter back, to find others occupying and prospering on their lands. Batoche is not a proud accomplishment for the Canadian Army, or the Government of Canada. But the newly minted Dominion of Prime Minister John A Macdonald was determined to prove that it could be as heartless, in persecuting minorities (Indian and Métis), as the British Army, which, in 1838, ruthlessly killed hundreds of French Canadians and burned their churches, homes, and farms. The British army created a national wound which still festers among many Quebecois, 170 years later, and is at the heart of the Sovereignty or Separatist Movement which flares up in the hearts of many French-Canadians with every passing generation. Who, they question, wants to stay in a country that brutalizes its minorities with contempt, and armed force, in political disputes? Above left the Jean Caron family house rebuilt on the same site to replace the one burned by the Canadian forces at Batoche on the first day of the battle. The military camp (zareba) was in the field to the right of the house and the cemetery and the church behind the woods to the left. Left a photo probably showing the Caron house on fire with the military camp on the right. For a look at the people who were the victims at Batoche... Go to The Métis The Caron house was rebuilt after the Rebellion which Métis people today call the Métis or Riel Resistance. Many generations would sit on the porch and sadly discuss those horrific three days in May, when these quiet pasture fields were turned into hell on earth for Métis men, women, and children, by the Canadian Anglophone soldiers who had come from thousands of miles away to try to put an end to the Métis fact on the prairies. Dead, meaningless history to many in Ontario... But not to a young Métis girl from the Cut Knife School in western Saskatchewan who went on a pilgrimage to visit the spot... And won The Government of Saskatchewan Heritage Poster Contest for her drawing and her thoughts... Heritage Poster Contest for Saskatchewan Students Cut Knife Student Receives Award at the Saskatchewan Legislature Aleah Anseth, Grade 6 student from Cut Knife Elementary has won the provincial annual Heritage Poster Contest. Aleah entered a hand drawn picture of the Caron House in Batoche. The picture has significance to her, as her great great grandparents built it. Aleah was presented her award by Dr. Linda Haverstock, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan and Joanne Crawford, MLA Fort Regina Rosemount. The award was presented to Aleah at the Saskatchewan Legislature on February23rd. Congratulations Aleah!

120 years after the Battle of Batoche, a Métis - Mark Calette - is the Site Manager of the Batoche National Historic Site, a place from where his relatives were chased by the armed forces of the Government of Canada, over a century ago...

George E Laidlaw went on to play an important role in investigating and preserving the artifacts and lore connected to the Aboriginal People of Ontario's Victoria County.

There is a large display of Aboriginal items from his collection at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, Ontario.

He died at the Fort in 1927.

Somewhere there must be a picture of Lieut. George E Laidlaw, who later became a Colonel, which we could compare to the portrait.

In November 2008, our conclusions about the painting were confirmed when members of the Laidlaw family, who still live on the homestead, contacted us to say the portrait is indeed that of young George Laidlaw.

 

The family kindly provided the standing portrait and mounted view of Colonel George Laidlaw.

 

Another Great Canadian Treasure saved from the trash heap of history by the Canadian Anglo-Boer War Museum.

Great New Development!!!

Read on...