July 7: Image of Waterloo that can be found in Leeds

Image of Waterloo that can be found in Leeds

I REFER to the article (The Yorkshire Post, June 18) about Waterloo which featured Lady Edith Butler’s painting, Scotland for Ever. Few people outside of Leeds, and I may say many in the city, do not know that it belongs to Leeds and is displayed in the City Art Gallery.

It was bought and given to Leeds by a former Lord Mayor Colonel Thomas Walter Harding, the same man who paid for the Black Prince equestrian sculpture in Leeds City Square.

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I have been fortunate to visit Waterloo where there is an exhibition centre which plays a video on the battle.

The video features Butler’s painting without any acknowledgement of either her or Leeds.

Not only is Scotland for Ever a wonderful painting, but also it is remarkable that it was painted by a woman when, at the time, women led particularly confined lives. Edith Butler was fortunate in that her army officer 
husband allowed her to watch the Scots Greys practising charges.

The picture is so good 
that it was used as propaganda 
in the First World War by 
both the UK and Germany, 
which called the Scots Greys a Prussian unit!