Fort Misses Out On The Action

Two paintings of interest to Fort York passed through Ritchies Toronto auction rooms in late May. Both were oil portraits of Francis Battersby: one in his uniform as a major in the 8th (King’s) Regiment of Foot painted in 1811 by Robert Field of Halifax, N.S., the other showing him as lieutenant colonel of the Glengarry Light Infantry, done ca. 1816 by a less well known artist, Levi Stephens. Both paintings had descended within the Battersby family, but were owned by an old family servant when they were noticed in 2004 as they passed through a small English auction house. The Field portrait sold for $25,000 to which was added a 20% purchaser’s premium; the Stephens went for $13,000 plus the premium. The latter work, which was of particular interest to Fort York, was purchased by the Portrait Gallery of Canada for Library & Archives Canada.

Francis Battersby (1775-1844) was an Irish-born career soldier who joined the 8th Foot as an ensign in 1796. During the Napoleonic wars he saw action at Alexandria (1801), Copenhagen (1807) and Martinique (1809). After his service in the West Indies, while still a captain, he became Deputy Quartermaster-General for the army in Nova Scotia and soon after was promoted to the rank of major. In early 1812, he became lieutenant colonel of the Glengarry Light Infantry Fencibles who had been raised among the Scottish Roman Catholic settlers in the Eastern District of Upper Canada. The Glengarries fought under his command at York in April, 1813, and later with distinction at Burlington, Lundy’s Lane and Chippewa. At the war’s end the regiment was disbanded and Battersby returned to Britain. Before leaving Canada, however, in an act for which he is now recalled more often than for his military accomplishments, he had his horses shot and buried near the military cemetery at York, U.C. (now Victoria Memorial Square, Toronto) because he could not bear the thought of them falling into inferior hands.