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Scotland Forever. The Royal Scots Greys Charge At Waterloo. Painting By Lady Elizabeth Butler. From The World's Greatest Paintings, Published By Odhams Press, London, 1934. Poster Print (20 x 10)

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A portrait of James, also by Raeburn, hangs in the Museum of the Isles at Armadale. It is ironic that while James’s portrait is hardly seen and little known, it is he who was the genuine hero, rather than his stay-at-home brother with his Highland fancy dress and warlike fantasies, whose painting in Edinburgh, seen by millions, has become one of the icons of Scottish culture. Born at the Villa Claremont in Lausanne, Switzerland, Butler was the daughter of Thomas James Thompson (1812–1881) and his second wife, Christiana Weller (1825–1910). Her sister was the noted essayist and poet Alice Meynell. Elizabeth began receiving art instruction in 1862, while growing up in Italy. In 1866, she entered the Female School of Art in South Kensington in London. She began exhibiting her artwork, usually watercolours, as a student. In 1867, one watercolour, Bavarian Artillery Going into Action, was shown at the Dudley Gallery, one of the galleries preferred by women artists. The same year, she exhibited an oil painting, Horses in Sunshine, at the Society of Female Artists. To the Front: French Cavalry Leaving a Breton City on the Declaration of War (1888–89 – Private Collection) This glorious vision of British martial manhood was painted by a woman, Lady Elizabeth Butler, born Elizabeth “Mimi” Thompson, and it is called Scotland Forever! However, at Waterloo, the regiment had brown horses like the other heavy cavalry regiments, and the name “greys” is derived from the grey uniforms the regiment wore in the early 18th century.

At a time when Scotland seems on a road that leads ultimately out of the union, it’s worth remembering that Waterloo did much to create the British patriotism that is now disintegrating. “Scotland Forever!” was these riders’ battle cry, but they were not calling for independence. Rather they were proudly articulating a Scottish identity within the British army. Their courage at Waterloo helped seal the image of Scottish military toughness within the mythology of the British Empire. Lady Butler painted Scotland Forever! in 1881, at the height of empire. The connection between kilts and courage would be a cliche of British imperialism right through to the 1968 film Carry On Up the Khyber. The Union brigade consisted of one English, one Irish and one Scottish regiment of cavalry, the Scots in question being the 2nd or Royal North British regiment of Dragoons, the Royal Scots Greys. As a regiment they had not fired a shot in anger for years, having been kept at home on ceremonial duties while Wellington fought his way through Spain. Many had seen action with other regiments before transferring, but Waterloo was the Greys’ last chance of Napoleonic glory – and they seized it.Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler, Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea (1874; Royal Collection)

The Charge of The Dorset Yeomanry at Agagia, 26th February, 1916 (1917 – [The Keep Military Museum, Dorchester])

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Fillimore, Francis. – "Britain's Battle Painter: Lady Butler and Her Art". – New England Home Magazine. – Vol. XII, No. 13, September 1900, pp.579–587 (also published in Windsor Magazine. – Vol. XI, December 1899 – May 1900, pp.643–652) After her marriage in 1877 to Sir William Francis Butler (1838–1910), an officer of the British Army, from Ireland, Butler traveled the far reaches of the Empire with her husband. Butler wrote that after the Exhibition, she awoke to find herself famous. In 1879, Butler came within two votes of becoming the first woman to be elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Academy. Lalumia, Matthew Paul. – "Lady Elizabeth Thompson Butler in the 1870s". – Woman's Art Journal. – Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring–Summer 1983, pp.9–14

The painting was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly in 1881. Tzar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany both received copies and later during the First World War both the British and the Germans used the image in their propaganda material, with the Scots Greys transformed into Prussian cavalry by the Germans. [1] Usherwood, Paul, and Jenny Spencer-Smith, (1987). – Lady Butler, Battle Artist, 1846–1933. – Gloucester: Sutton. – ISBN 0-86299-355-5 A British-led allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. James Macdonell, a colonel of the Coldstream Guards, had been put in command of Hougoumont by the Duke. His 200 men of the light companies of both the Coldstream and the Scots Guards were charged with holding the buildings and gardens of the chateau. From 11.30 on the morning of 18 June until the close of the battle that evening, the Guards, together with their Dutch and German allies, defended the chateau. Most crucially, when a French assault party managed to force open the north gate into the courtyard, it was Macdonell and seven of his men who through sheer brute strength managed to shut it again.Gladwell, Malcolm. (2016). "The Lady Vanishes". – Episode 1, Season 1, Revisionist History Podcast. http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/01-the-lady-vanishes

I would like to offer an alternative view: that Waterloo was arguably in large part a Scottish victory. There are two reasons behind this assertion. Wellington, when asked how the battle was won, said without hesitation that it all hung on ‘the closing of the gate at Hougoumont’.SS Rajamouli names Ranbir Kapoor as his favourite actor; Ranbir chooses Sandeep Reddy Vanga over RRR director

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