The direct, serious eyes of Sam Steele were a sign of the strength and leadership to come. Born at Purbrooke, Medonte Township near Orillia, Upper Canada (Ontario) on January 5, 1849, Samuel Benfield Steele’s father, Elmes Steel, was a Captain in the Royal Navy for 30 years, his grandfather and uncle were also military men. Sam’s mother was Anne Macdonald of Scotland. The oldest of six, Sam was home-schooled then attended Toronto’s Royal Military Academy.

Just 17, Sam joined the militia to fight the Fenian Raids. Finding the military to be his niche, “he raised and trained a company for the 31st (Grey) Battalion of Infantry,” said R.C. MacLeod in “Steele, Sir Samuel Benfield,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. In 1870, the avid young man volunteered for duty with the 1st (Ontario) Battalion of Rifles. The battalion journeyed to Fort Garry and the Red River in Manitoba, disbanding in 1871.

Steele Troop Sergeant Major of the NWMP

Joining the Canadian Permanent Force in Kingston, Sam taught fresh soldiers the art of artillery. “Here in the summer of 1873 he heard that the government intended to create a mounted police force for the North-West Territories,” said MacLeod. Given permission to go, Sam was made Troop Sergeant Major of the newly formed North West Mounted Police and headed back to Fort Garry on the March West in 1874 with a contingent of men, the task to instruct new recruits and break horses. Sam, it was said,, did the hard work of two men.