Submitted by the staff of the Orillia Museum of Art and History (OMAH)
OMAH volunteer, family historian and genealogist Fred Blair has extensively researched Sir Samuel Benfield Steele’s family, tracing their roots back to England.
OMAH is located in a building named in the 1950s by the Orillia Police Service in honour of Steele. The sword has been a significant acquisition, originally gifted to the Orillia Historical Society in 1965. Like the family, Blair traced the history of the sword.
Steele’s father, Elmes Yelverton Steele, joined the Royal Navy in England in 1798 at the age of 17 as an officer cadet. By 1807, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant, a position that would have required that he possess a sword.
He was serving on the Leopard on June 22, when he was ordered to fire a warning shot across the bow of the American frigate, Chesapeake, to warn it to drop its sails and stop. The captain of the frigate refused to comply, and the British captain of the Leopard ordered his crew to fire a broadside attack. The Chesapeake then dropped its sails and the British crew boarded to search for British deserters.
The captain’s order to fire directly on an American ship was considered overly aggressive, and the British Admiralty demoted all the officers serving aboard the Leopard. This was one of the British acts that led the Americans to declare war in 1812.
We do not know exactly when Elmes acquired the sword, but he may have had it at that time. In 1812, he retired with the rank of captain.
In 1832, Elmes arrived in Ontario to occupy a 1,000-acre land grant in Medonte Township and settled at Fair Valley, between Orillia and Coldwater. He was a leader in the county and eventually acquired the title of lieutenant-colonel of the Simcoe County Militia. That rank also required him to wear a ceremonial sword.
After Elmes retired from military life, he passed this sword down to his son, Samuel, who would carry it across the nation and overseas.
Samuel Benfield Steele was born in January 1848 on his father’s farm. He grew up to become one of the first officers of the North-West Mounted Police. This put him on the front line for some significant Canadian events, including the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the North-West Rebellion, and the gold rush.
He also went on to fight in the Boer War in South Africa, and later served as a major-general in command of the 2nd Canadian Division in the First World War. He was knighted in January 1918.
In several photographs, he is depicted wearing the sword.
