| A member of Toronto's great military family George Taylor Denison III born in Toronto on 31 August, 1839 and was the son of George Taylor Denison II and Mary Anne Dewson. He served with the militia during the Fenian Raids of 1866 where it was said that he picked up a Fenian sword from the battlefield which he kept for use a fire poker. He also served with the militia during the Riel Rebellion in North-West Canada in 1885. An ardent Canadian patriot he help found the Canada First movement promoted Canada's place within the British Empire. Possibly as a result of the Fenian Raids which originated in the United States he was virulently Anti-American and was once said to have threatend to go to West Minster Abbey and spit on a statue of George Washington should a proposed monument of the first U.S. President actually be erected there. He was appointed police magistrate of Toronto in 1877 and he was probably holding that office when this photograph was taken in 1878. He wrote The History of Modern Cavalry (1877) which was received world wide as an authority of the subject. He also published his personal memoirs titled Soldiering in Canada (1900). Denison married Miss Caroline Adelaide Macklem on 20 January, 1863. This union produced six children: Mary Anne, Caroline Adelaide, Julia Anne, George Taylor IV, Oliver Macklem and Garnet Wolseley Denison. After the death of his first wife in 1885 he married Miss Helen Amanda Mair on 1 December 1887. Their marriage produced two daughters: Helen Clare and Elise Margaret Dension. George Taylor Denison III died in Toronto on 6 June, 1925. Cabinet Photograph Hunter & Co. - Photographer 39 & 49 King Street, West, Toronto, Canada c. 1878 |
