"Listed for the Connaught Rangers": analysis of a military painting.

One of the most well known military artists of the 19th century was Lady Elizabeth Butler. Her painting depicting the charge of the Scots Grays at Waterloo ("Scotland Forever") is perhaps one of the most widely recognized British military paintings of the last 200 years. Similarly, her depiction of the action at the height of the Battle of Rorke's Drift ("The Defence of Rorke's Drift") is just as widely known and admired.

A lesser known painting, however, is her tribute to Ireland (her adopted country) and the Irish soldier (a tribute perhaps to her beloved husband), the lyrical "Listed for the Connaught Rangers," first displayed in 1878. This painting, which at first glance seems to lack the power and force of such other of Lady Butler's work as "The Roll Call," "Floreat Etona," "Scotland Forever" and "The Return From Inkerman," yet still, on close study, is a work of immense power and great artistry. The painting deserves and requires the closest attention and once having received this, certainly rewards the viewer.

In this short article 1 intend to explore several interconnected themes, namely the life and work of Lady Elizabeth Butler, the life of her husband that great Irish Catholic soldier General Sir William Butler, and the history of that magnificent but now long dead Irish regiment, the Connaught Rangers. Finally, 1 will concentrate on the painting that prompted this article in the first place. I wish to make it quite clear, however, that 1 will not be discussing the technical aspects of the painting. I lack the qualifications for such a task and leave it to the experts.

Lady Elizabeth Butler was born Elizabeth Thompson in Laussane, Switzerland in 1846. According to her biographer Wilfred Meynell she displayed an interest in both art and military themes from an early age. At a time when female artists and their work were widely disparaged, Elizabeth Thompson nevertheless enrolled and trained at the South Kensington School of Design. Her interest in military themes was witnessed by her very first work accepted for display at the Royal Academy in London, a water colour entitled "Two Wounded French Officers in the Franco-Prussian War." While other artists and critics continued to disparage both Elizabeth Thompson and her fellow female painters, still no one could fault the young artist's grasp of military detail. This detail was the result of exhaustive research and long discussions with veteran soldiers.

Elizabeth Thompson created a sensation in 1874 when, at the age of 27, her somber, evocative work entitled "Calling the Roll After an Engagement in the Crimea" (usually referred to as "The Roll Call") was accepted and displayed by the Royal Academy. Not only accepted but nominated as the Academy's painting of the year. The painting, which was purchased by Queen Victoria and remains in the Queen's Collection today, was not only a critical sensation, but a public one as well. When it was displayed the crowds that thronged to view it were so great that police guards had to be mounted, both to control the crowd and to protect the painting.

In a somewhat patronising compliment, the Daily Telegraph editorialised that the artist's mastery of military subjects "hacked off" at least two of the shackles oppressing women. In typically overblown Victorian language the editorial noted that with the acclaim and acceptance of "The Roll Call" the public saw "a manacle knocked off a woman's wrist and a shackle hacked off her ankle." The editorial went on to specifics, noting that the painting ensured that women artists would now be "enlarged from wasting upon fruitless objects the sympathies which would be developed for the advantage of humanity" while at the same time being endowed "with a vocation which can be cultivated in (her own) home, without the risk of submission to any galling tyranny or more galling patronage." Apparently the irony of the patronising tone of the editorial itself was lost on the editor!

More to the point, John Ruskin the foremost English art critic of the day, who stated that he "never approached a picture with more iniquitous prejudice against it than I did Miss Thompson's" was completely won over. On viewing the painting Ruskin renounced previous criticism and went on to compare the artist's sense of colour and light with that of his favourite (male) artist, John Turner.

Following the stunning success of "The Roll Call" Elizabeth Thompson went on to paint a series of military battle scenes which were easily amongst the most popular images of Victorian Britain. "Scotland Forever" is included in just about every book written about the Battle of Waterloo, while "The Defence of Rorke's Drift" is almost as well known in connection with the Zulu War.

In 1877 Elizabeth Thompson married an Irish soldier, Major William Butler, descendant of an old noble family from Tipperary. William Butler was born at Ballyslateen near Golden, Co. Tipperary in 1838. The Butler family had lived in the area since 1584 when Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, had settled his brothers there after the destruction of the Butler's mortal foes, the Desmonds. The Butler family was relatively well off, although much of the family's wealth had been dissipated over the years in fines and confiscations resulting from the family's refusal to give up the Catholic faith. William grew up in an atmosphere of love and surrounded by books and learning. Nevertheless, he was not shielded from the realities of contemporary Irish life. He carried memories of the horror of scenes of evictions of Irish peasants with him for his entire life.

William Butler followed the family military tradition when he was gazetted to the 69th Foot in 1858. Service with his regiment and then later on detached duty followed in India, Burma and then in Canada. In Canada he served under Sir Garnet Wolsley in the Red River Campaign and incidentally was instrumental in setting up the constabulary force that became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. His service in Canada also resulted in a critically acclaimed novel entitled Red Cloud, published in 1872 which remained a standard British school textbook until the 1930's. In the year that Elizabeth Thompson was displaying "The Roll Call" in London, William Butler was engaged in a vicious and deadly jungle campaign on the fever ridden west coast of Africa, serving in the Ashanti War under his old mentor Wolsley. His writings reveal that he was horrified by evidence of the slave trade and by the white man's disastrous effect on the African. Yet, for all that, he remained unswerving in his loyalty to the Queen and to the British Army.

Back in England in 1877 Major William Butler met, wooed, courted and wed the well-known artist Elizabeth Thompson. The wedding was something of a sensation and a highlight of the London social year. Many people looked askance at the match between the Jesuit educated, Irish Catholic soldier with the decidedly left leaning outlook and the quintessentially English toast of the London art and literary scene. Just as many if not more, however, applauded the match. Not the least of these was Elizabeth Butler's former critic John Ruskin who, in a warm letter of congratulation to the couple, wrote: "What may you not do for England, the two of you."

The newly married couple honeymooned in Ireland. They then went on to spend the first few years of the marriage in William's homeland as he served on staff postings in Ireland. Elizabeth immediately noticed the hold Ireland had on William and herself very soon fell in love with the country and its people. Indeed, apart from postings and holidays, Elizabeth was to make her home in Ireland until her death in 1933.

Despite taking time out to bear and raise five children, Elizabeth Butler continued to paint. Battle related scenes-"Steady the Drums and Fifes," "The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras," "The Return from Inkerman," "Floreat Etona," etc-continued to dominate her work. But her life in Ireland and her newfound love for her husband's country of birth also led her to produce two less well known, Irish related non-battle scenes. These are "Listed for the Connaught Rangers," the central theme of this article, and "Evicted," a poignant, bitter comment on the plight of Ireland's rural poor painted in 1889.

William Butler saw further extensive service overseas including a period serving with the North West Mounted Police in Canada and service in the Egyptian campaign against Arabi Pasha in 1882. In 1899, now a major general, he was serving as General Officer Commanding South Africa when be sent his famous cable to the War Office on 23 June resigning his command. General Butler's reason for resigning was his disgust at the way the looming war with the Boer Republics was being engineered in the wake of the farcical Jamieson Raid. Relieved of command he returned to England to take up a home command and become, as a friend at the War Office told him, "the best abused man in England." He retired in October 1905 at the age of 67 and was knighted in the King's Birthday Honour's List in 1906, becoming Sir William Butler. It was at this point that the former Elizabeth Thompson became Lady Elizabeth Butler. General Sir William Butler died at the family home in Tipperary in 1910. Lady Elizabeth Butler lived and painted until 1933. The family home, Bansha Castle, was confiscated by the Free State in 1922 and Lady Butler packed up in indignation and moved to Gormanston where she stayed with her daughter until her death.

But all that was in the future when Elizabeth Butler's evocative, lyric painting "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" was painted in 1878, the year following her marriage to William Butler. The painting shows a recruiting party of a sergeant, two musicians and a private of the Connaught Rangers and two ragged Irish peasant recruits marching out of a sodden Kerry glen. Despite the military theme of the painting, the peaceful nature of the subject was a radical departure from Elizabeth Butler's previous work. It would eventually be complemented by her other major non-military work "Evicted."

Before examining "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" in detail it is necessary to stop for a moment and ask the question: who or what were the Connaught Rangers?

At the time of the painting, Ireland was of course ruled by United Kingdom and was considered part of the United Kingdom. Thus, there was no Irish Army, Irishmen perforce serving instead in the British Army. An Irishman taking the Queen's shilling could opt to enlist in any regiment of the British Army which had vacancies (all usually did). Due to the fact that the garrison in Ireland was almost exclusively made up of "English" units, Irishmen, who enlisted in great numbers due to the parlous economic state of their homeland, made up a significant portion of the British Army, especially the regiments of foot. But, while there was space for Irishmen anywhere in the army, most preferred if possible to enlist in an Irish regiment. In 1878 there were eight Irish regiments of foot in the British Army: the Royal Irish Regiment, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles, the Royal Irish Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Of these the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Royal Irish Rifles and the Royal Irish Fusiliers traditionally recruited from amongst the Protestant majority in the north of Ireland. The Royal Irish Regiment, the Connaught Rangers, the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the other hand all recruited in the south of Ireland, were overwhelmingly Catholic and were referred to as the "Southern Irish regiments."

The Connaught Rangers traced their history back to 1793 when they were raised as the 88th (Connaught Rangers) Regiment of Foot in the ancient Irish kingdom of Connaught. The Rangers had the distinction of being the only regiment in the British Army to carry its regional title from its birth. All other regiments went through numerous name changes until the Cardwell Reform of 1882 finally settled on names. The Cardwell Reforms saw the 88th Regiment of Foot linked with the 94th (The Scotch Brigade) Regiment of Foot to form the Connaught Rangers. The 88th became the 1st Battalion the Connaught Rangers and the 94th became the 2nd Battalion. Cardwell's system, which came at the height of British imperial expansion, linked regiments to a particular "recruiting area." The idea was that at any one time one battalion of each two battalion regiment would be serving overseas (India, Burma, Canada, Aden, Gibraltar, South Africa etc) while the other battalion would remain on "home service" recruiting, training and despatching reinforcement drafts to the overseas battalion. Theoretically the battalions were supposed to swap at regular and fixed intervals but this did not always occur. For example, when the poet Robert Graves joined the 2nd Battalion the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a subaltern in France in 1915 the battalion had just arrived from India where they had been serving for the previous 27 years. Graves was astonished at the sight of fusiliers, used to years of dealing with "blackies," kicking French civilians in the backside and swearing at them in Hindustani!

Over the years the Connaught Rangers acquired a reputation for hard fighting. They served under Wellington in India and earned their first battle honour at Seringapatam. Later they served with Wellington in the Peninsular and then in France and Belgium, their savagery in battle earning them the nickname "The Devil's Own." They also later acquired the somewhat bizarre and obscure nickname of the "Jaysus Alberts." The Connaughts went on to serve in India, the Crimea, Burma, the Boer War and the First World War. In the very last days of the First World War the Connaught Rangers had the unique distinction of having a non-Regular battalion converted to a Regular battalion. The 5th (Service) Battalion was paraded in France and given the unique order: "5th Battalion Connaught Rangers ground arms, 2nd Battalion Connaught Rangers take up arms."

So, that was some historical background on the "Devil's Own," now I'll turn to the painting. First, what is it about? Well, in 1879 recruiting in the British Army was still done by recruiting parties to the beat of the drum. The party, under a specially selected sergeant, would tour a designated area, the musicians drawing attention to the party's arrival. Once a crowd, or even one man, had gathered the sergeant and the others in the party would attempt by whatever means available to tempt likely recruits into taking the Queen's shilling. The last phrase was literally true. By both tradition and law a man was not legally enlisted, even if he had signed attestation papers, until he accepted a shilling from the hand of the recruiting sergeant. The shilling was an ancient symbol of the binding of the contract between the recruit and the crown. As odd as it may sound the practice still continues in the British Army. To this day every soldier enlisting into the

British Army is handed a nominal sum of money to bind the contract once he is attested. Irish regiments, while they had their depots and regimental headquarters in Ireland rarely served there. British fears of armed Irishmen in their own land meant that Irish battalions on home service would almost always spend their time in England. But they still recruited in Ireland and it was to Ireland that the recruiting parties went. Thus the subject of the painting.

Firstly, the setting and scenery of the painting. Elizabeth Butler stated that the scene depicted a recruiting party in a "Kerry glen." The setting is typically Irish. A blue sky is partly obscured by heavy rain clouds. We can in fact see by the water on the road that it has only recently rained. In the background we see dark, craggy almost forbidding hills. The country in the foreground is rocky, barren heath scattered with stones and graced by stubby tussocks of tough grass. It is in fact typical of the poor, sparse land in the south and west of Ireland. To the left of the painting are the tumbled remains of a peasant cottage, probably victim of the "crowbar brigade" of a magisterially backed landlord's eviction. The party marches down a rutted, unsealed, muddy Irish country road. In short, the country represents the type of place any sane person would be glad to see the back of. In the middle distance, between the rear two figures and the base of the mountains, nestled in the glen we can just make out the tiny village the party has apparently just marched from. This would be where the two recruits were "listed." Possibly it was market day and visited specially. Or possibly it was just the next half-forgotten rural backwater village on the party's rounds.

Now, what about the figures in the painting? We can see that there are two distinct groups, the four at the front and two in the rear. Taking the rear group first. To the left, immediately behind the sergeant, is a private who has stopped to light his pipe. To the right is a band boy, immediately identifiable by his youth and musician's facings and wings on his tunic. He is a fifer, as can be seen by the fife case on his belt and he carries a bugle in the regulation marching position.

Now, we turn to the group in the foreground. From left to right, another band boy, this one a drummer, two recruits and then the recruiting sergeant. The drummer has his drum slung over his shoulder and is bent forward as if struggling to keep up. The recruit on the left is visibly lagging behind and is looking back, perhaps at the tumbled cottage. Was it his? Was this why he enlisted? Or perhaps it reminds him of what happened to his cottage. The second recruit by contrast is looking straight ahead, head up, shoulders back, hands in pockets and clay pipe in mouth as he marches off into the future. Finally there is the sergeant, who is for me the central figure of the painting. He is tall, erect, immaculately turned out in regimental scarlet jacket with the yellow facings of the Connaught Rangers; scarlet sash over his shoulder; white pipe clayed belt around his waist; and glengarry bonnet set at a rakish but precise angle on his head. Note that he carries a swagger cane in his right hand and has taken off his right hand glove, which he carries, in his left hand.

How accurate is the painting in detail? Well, from everything I know and have been able to find out, it is accurate down to the tiniest detail. Certainly as regards the setting and the weather conditions, Elizabeth Butler was painting from life and recall that no less an authority than John Ruskin had already lauded her for her treatment of colour and light. Her two Irish recruits were also probably painted from life. There is sympathy in their treatment--the two men are not caricatures of the typical "music hall Mick." At the same time the artist certainly made no attempt to "pretty up" the poor quality of their clothes or the slovenliness of their appearance. They can probably be reasonably safely taken to be correct portrayals of typical Irish rural labourers of the day.

As for the uniforms, the artist cannot be faulted in any way at all. The uniform details including the glengarries, the sergeant's sash, belt and cane, the musician's facings and wings on the two band boys, the facings and trim on the jackets, even the cut of the trousers are one hundred percent accurate. Again, we must remember that the artist painted from life. She had already established a reputation for stunning accuracy and attention to detail in her representations of British soldiers. Also, she was now married to a soldier, an Irish one at that, and would certainly have been at pains to get the details right.

Having now established that Elizabeth Butler produced a totally accurate portrayal of a recruiting party of the Connaught Rangers in rural Ireland circa 1878, the question needs to be asked, what does the painting mean? What was the artist saying? After all the work was a major departure from the painter's normal style. There is obviously a message involved. I will stress here that, as all things are in the eye of the beholder, the interpretation of "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" which follows is purely my own. I leave it up to others to reach their own conclusions.

I believe that Elizabeth Butler painted "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" for a number of reasons. First as a tribute to a great Irish soldier, her beloved husband William. Secondly as a comment on the cruel dichotomy of the Irish soldier--a man who was forced, more often than not by sheer circumstance, to turn his back on the beloved land of his birth and enlist in the army of the oppressor. Finally, as a tribute to the eternal spirit of the regiment.

The tribute to her husband is obvious. The artist has chosen to represent a recruiting party of an Irish regiment in an Irish setting. A transplanted Englishwoman and Catholic convert, Elizabeth Butler fell in love with Ireland from the very first moment. Not only that, she developed a deep sympathy for the Irish people and a bitter resentment against their station and those who had put them there. Indeed her later painting "Evicted" was based solidly on her own experiences. She witnessed an eviction in Wicklow and described how the evicted woman, dignified in her distress, came to search for such simple belongings as might have survived the ashes of her former home. In Elizabeth Butler's own words: "She was very philosophical, and did not rise to the level of my indignation as an ardent English sympathiser." This empathy is reflected in "Listed for the Connaught Rangers." Note that of all her works, only "Listed" and "Evicted" have an Irish theme.

For the comment on the torn loyalties of the Irish soldier, we must look at the recruits. These two figures are quite fascinating. The one on the left is slight, bent, hesitant, lagging. He is looking back as if unwilling to cut the ties which bind him to Ireland. His feet drag and his eyes are drawn to the tumbled cottage, symbol of the oppressor's hand on his land. He is obviously an unwilling recruit, probably forced into the arms of the British Army by financial necessity. One gets the feeling that he will not make a good soldier and in fact will probably not survive the initial training process but will fall by the wayside. He may even desert. Still, he engenders sympathy as a bewildered and probably simple man, forced into a path he does not care for and already pining for the land he left.

The other recruit is totally the opposite. Tall, well built, he strides out along the muddy road like "Adam striding out over the very first bog" (as an Irishman was once described to me by another Irishman). His head is up and his shoulders are back. Compare him to the sergeant who he almost seems to be imitating. The set of their shoulders is almost identical. With his head up and his clay pipe clenched jauntily in his mouth, he is almost arrogant as he strides forward on the shining road to what he probably sees as a shining future. One gets the impression that he will not fall by the wayside. These two figures then represent the bitter duality of the Irish soldier. Torn between love of Ireland and love regiment (rarely love of the army). The smaller recruit represents love of Ireland, the larger one love of regiment. Both are to be pitied.

The two recruits can also be taken, perhaps, as an allegory on the stages of a soldier's life. The smaller recruit represents the new recruit, tossed into an alien world, still not divorced from his civilian past and struggling to make his way. The larger figure is the recruit after he has lost some of what Kipling referred to as "his gutter devil" and is on the way to making a soldier. Perhaps this is also part of what the artist is saying.

Now for the soldiers, the two at the back first. The private lighting his pipe is probably (although I admit I may be drawing a long bow here) meant to illustrate the accepted image of the Irish private of the period. Brave in battle, feckless and unreliable in barracks. Well turned out, he still takes advantage of the sergeant's lack of attention on him to illicitly light his pipe. In any well-disciplined army, and especially the British Army of the time, smoking on the march was a privilege to be extended or withheld at the discretion of superiors. As a member of a recruiting party the private would be expected to be regimentally correct at all times. But here the man seems to have thought: "What the hell, it's been a long day, we've got our quota and the sarge isn't looking. I'll light up me pipe." Again, I stress that I don't know if this is what Elizabeth Butler is trying to say, but it is certainly what it says to me.

The band boy is interesting. In total contrast to the private he is marching along regimentally correct, in obvious imitation of the sergeant. The sergeant is unmistakably his hero, his role model. His stance, his bearing and his marching gait consciously imitate the sergeant's. One can almost read his thoughts as he contemplates his own future--once he turns 17 he can go on to line service and work to emulate his hero. One day he'll be the recruiting sergeant marching down an Irish road.

The other band boy is less assured. Note that his drum is slung. He's done his duty, he's beaten the drum and called in the recruits and now he's going home. But he is not as robust as his companions are. His drum is a burden that bows him down and he's struggling. Nevertheless, he is marching on gamely and keeping up. It is possible to draw a parallel between the drummer and the smaller recruit but it's not a strong one. The recruit's chances seemed doomed while the drummer displays the courage to battle on. He may never take the sergeant's place but it won't be for want of trying.

Now the sergeant, as I have already noted, for me the dominant, most interesting and most important figure in the painting. He is a young man, in his late 20's or early 30's at the most. He is serious and conscious of the importance of his job. Immaculately turned out, every inch of his frame exudes pride in regiment and pride in self. Not so long ago he was a ragged farm labourer, just like the recruits. Now he is a man of substance, respected by his peers and trusted by his superiors. He is the hero of the fifer, the (probable) terror of the pipe smoking private and the supporter of the drummer. It is his aloof disregard for the trials of the road that is helping the poor drummer to struggle on. He is also the early role model for the larger recruit. Pride in regiment is shown in the way that the sergeant wears his uniform, not a thread out of place. Pride in self and care are demonstrated by his carrying his right hand glove in his left hand. The swagger cane may already be wet. If not, it runs the risk of becoming wet if the rains come again and staining the glove. The sergeant carries the cane correctly held parallel to the ground, lightly grasped at the pivot point and swung through from front to rear so as to be kept parallel at all times.

These four figures, the two band boys, the private and the sergeant, speak to me of the eternal regiment. Behind stretch all of those men of the "Devil's Own" who have taken the King's or Queen's shilling all the way back to 1793. In front of them stretches the future of the regiment, which will endure so long as one single "Jaysus Albert" is left draw breath. More importantly, on this lonely and isolated country road these four ARE the regiment and by being there with them the two recruits, one willing one not, are also part of the regiment. This is a large part of what the sergeant is trying to convey, both to the other soldiers, his juniors, and to the recruits, the new soldiers. The regiment is everything. And the regiment will endure. The sergeant could, quite literally, drop stone dead in the muddy road but the regiment would not die. The regiment will live on because behind him march the fifer and the private and beside him marches the drummer and with him march the recruits, the newest generation of the family. They will keep the regiment alive long after the sergeant is gone and thus the sergeant will never die because the regiment will never die. This is, I believe, the third message Elizabeth Butler is sending with her painting.

A developmental theme on the spirit of the regiment is the ability of the Irish soldier to transfer love of country to love of regiment. A peculiarity of the British Army is the tribalism of its regimental system. Unlike most armies where loyalty is to the army as a whole, in the British Army (and, to a lesser extent, the Australian Army) loyalty is to the regiment. A soldier, even today, is not so much a British soldier as a "Welsh Guardsman" or a "Stafford" or a "DERR" or a "Duke's." So, at the time "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" was painted, an Irishman in the British Army did not see himself as a British soldier. Rather he saw himself as a "Royal Irish" or a "Ranger" or a "Leinster" or a "Munster" or a "Dublin." This ability to identify with the regiment rather than with the army as a whole would have greatly assisted an Irish soldier in coming to terms with having taken service with what he would probably view as his country's oppressor. By extension, Irish regiments became a little piece of Ireland transplanted to whatever part of the world they were serving in. St Patrick's Day, for instance, was celebrated in Burma, in India, in South Africa, Malta, Aden, the trenches of the Western Front. It continues to be celebrated today, the Irish Guards having recently celebrated Paddy's Day in the field in Kosovo. Thus, 19th century Irish soldiers generally did not see themselves as serving the British Army and Crown; rather they saw themselves as serving the colonel of an Irish regiment. Another strength of "the regiment" and perhaps again part of what Lady Butler was saying with her painting.

Well, that's what "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" says to me. As I have stated, all things are in the eye of the beholder and it is up to other viewers to make their own interpretation of the painting. Lady Elizabeth Butler, wife of that great soldier General Sir William Butler (the first Catholic general in the British Army since the time of James II) is rightly considered one of the foremost military artists of the 19th century. Many of her works are well known although in truth many people, while immediately recognising such works as "Scotland Forever" might not know who actually painted it. Others of her works are not as well known and "Listed for the Connaught Rangers" is one of these. This is a pity, as it is at one and the same time a marvelous work of art, a fine tribute to the Irish soldier, a well turned tribute to the concept of the regiment and a poignant comment on the sad, cruel, between two worlds status of the Irish soldier.

Oh, one last thing. The dog? Sorry, I have absolutely no idea why its there, except to say that dogs in British Army paintings of the 19th century seemed to be an ironclad requirement. Also, maybe the dog was actually there the day that Lady Butler first sketched the scene. As a leading Pre-Raphaelite, if it was there, then Lady Butler would have painted it!

Historical Footnote

Despite the message conveyed by Lady Butler's painting, sadly the Connaught Rangers no longer exist. Along with the Royal Irish Regiment, the Leinster Regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers were disbanded in 1922. This decision was made as a result of the recently granted independence of southern Ireland, which meant that the Southern Irish Regiments bad lost their recruiting grounds. At the same time economic constraints had forced a reduction of strength on the British Army and obviously the ten Southern Irish battalions went a long way to conveniently meeting the army's need to cut its unit numbers. Fortunately the "Devil's Own" live on in Lady Butler's wonderful painting.

Bibliography

Anonymous, 1998 "General Sir William Butler Jesuit Alumnus, Brave Warrior, Man of Compassion," Our Alma Mater Annual Magazine of Saint Ignatius' College Riverview, vol.113, issue No. 126, pp.38-41.

Chilvers, Ian, 1996 Oxford Concise Dictionary of Arts & Artists, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Harris, R.G. and H.R.G. Wilson, 1999 The Irish Regiments 1683-1999, Spellmount, London. Lambourne, Lionel, 1996 Victorian Painting, Phaidon Press, London.

Marsh, Jan and Pamela Gerrish Nunn, 1999 Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement, Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester.

Meynell, Wilfred, 1898 "The Life and Work of Lady Butler (Miss Elizabeth Thompson)," The Art Annual, Christmas.

Mills, T.F., 1996 Regiments and Corps of the British Army