Warriors

Picking up where I left off yesterday, here's more of the exhibit on Highland Warriors.

Guard Of Honour Of The 79th Highlanders at Holyrood House is the title of this painting by R.R. McIan, dating to 1852.

This is the dress uniform of Captain E.J.F. Kelso of the 72nd Highlanders; he served in the regiment from 1829-40.

Edward VIII was colonel-in-chief of the Seaforth Highlanders starting in 1920 when he was still Prince of Wales, until his abdication in 1936. This was his dress uniform.

Highlanders in the Canadian military started as militia units, taking on the Scottish tradition in the New World. Out of that would spring the military units we see today with a rich Highland heritage, even if some of their members might not have so much as a drop of Scottish blood in them.

6th Battalion Cameron Highlanders At Loos is a 1919 painting by Joseph Gray, depicting the Canadians getting ready to launch an assault as part of the First World War battle in September 1915.

More uniforms. The portrait is Lance Corporal Fred Fisher, by George James Coates. The corporal was awarded the Victoria Cross, posthumously, for bravery at St. Julien in Belgium during the Second Battle of Ypres. As part of the 5th Royal Highlanders of Canada, Fisher led a machine gun detachment forward to attack the enemy lines, and was killed on the 23rd of April, 1915. He had the distinction of being the first Canadian of the war to be awarded the Victoria Cross.

From one war to another. Stormont, Dundas, And Glengarry Highlanders Advancing Into Caen is the title of this painting by O.N. Fisher depicting Canadian Highlanders on the assault into the city as part of the Normandy campaign. The artist, Orville Fisher, was the only designated war artist who landed on the beach on D-Day. Enlisted as a private and elevated to officer's rank when his superiors saw his skill, he dropped the bulk of his art gear overboard (realizing it would drown him) on D-Day, and went ashore with a waterproof sketch pad and charcoal pencil, making a series of sketches of the chaos of battle around him. Those sketches would later go into dramatic paintings, some of which are in the Museum's collection.

And it is the beaches of Normandy that occupy this photograph. Corporal Rachelle MacDonald of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa played the pipes at the Canadian War Cemetery at Bretteville-sur-Laize during the 70th anniversary ceremonies marking D-Day in 2014.

I finish this exhibit with a portrait. Lt. Colonel Dwayne Kevin Hobbs is a portrait by Gertrude Kearns of the commanding officer of the Toronto Scottish, depicting him in dress uniform. Hobbs was in command of that unit from 2005-08, and over the course of his career has spent time in Bosnia, the Golan Heights, and in the Afghan War.