Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Butler, Elizabeth Southerden
BUTLER, Mrs. Elizabeth Southerden, daughter of the late Mr. Thomas J. Thompson, by Christina, daughter of Mr. T. B. Weller, was born at Lausanne, in Switzerland. Her parents removed to Prestbury, near Cheltenham, where, at the age of five years, Miss Thompson first began to handle the pencil. After two or three years' sojourn at Prestbury, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson went to live in Italy, and the young artist continued her studies at Florence. In 1870 the family returned to England, and took up their abode at Ventnor, where they remained till the great success of Miss Thompson's picture of the "Roll Call" made a removal to London desirable. At one period she studied in the Government School of Art, Kensington. For some years she exhibited at the Dudley and other galleries. Her first picture at the Royal Academy was "Missing," 1873. It was followed in 1874 by the "Roll Call," a picture which attracted universal attention, and which was purchased by the Queen. "The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras" was exhibited at the Academy in 1875; "Balaklava" in Bond Street in 1876; and "Inkermann" in Bond Street in 1877. More recently she has painted:—"'Listed for the Connaught Rangers: recruiting in Ireland," 1879; "The Defence of Rorke's Drift," 1881; "Floreat Etona!" 1882, an incident in the attack on Laing's Nek; and a picture representing the famous charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo (1882). Miss Thompson became the wife of Major William Francis Butler, C.B., June 11, 1877.