From Waterloo to Jellalabad: The Irish and Scots at war in R Elizabeth Thompson Butler D and W. F. Butler

Abstract

This essay examines the paintings of the British war artist Elizabeth Thompson Butler in conjunction with the travel, military and political writings of her husband William Francis Butler. It explores how their work both subscribes to and deviates from prevailing British imperial ideology. Elizabeth Butler produced scenes of war which eschewed jingoism and focused instead on soldiers’ suffering. William Butler was an Irish Catholic officer in the British army. Despite fighting the wars of empire, he was sceptical of imperial expansion and sympathetic to Irish Home Rule objectives. Consequently, he does not conveniently fit within the categories of late Victorian imperialist or Irish Nationalist. The discussion reappraises the work of both Butlers, highlighting their sophisticated engagements with notions of war and empire from Waterloo to Afghanistan. Although William died in 1910, Elizabeth Butler lived to paint the First World War. I examine how the Butlers depict battlegrounds of Europe and empire, and address a range of colonial socio-political grievances. Close attention to their work, particularly to their shared interest in the figure of the colonial subaltern, reveals a multiplicity of narratives constituting British and Irish identities and allegiances from the late Victorian period to the First World War.