Elmes Yelverton Steele

Elmes Yelverton Steele (February 6, 1781 – August 6, 1865) was a naval officer, militia officer, farmer and political figure in Canada West.

Captain Elmes Yelverton Steele

He was born in Coleford, Gloucestershire, England in 1781. He was the son of Elmes Steel (d.1824), surgeon of Coleford, and Mary Benfield (1749-1831).[1] Two of his brothers served as officers in the Royal Navy and three as officers in the British Army. His uncle, Colonel Samuel Steel, served in Quebec under Lord Amherst.[2]

Like two of his brothers, he joined the Royal Navy as an officer cadet in 1798 and served during the Napoleonic Wars rising to the rank of Lieutenant.[3] He retired from the navy in 1812 on half-pay. He settled in France, but returned to England at the start of the French Revolution of 1830.

In 1832, he settled on a large farm in Medonte Township in Upper Canada. In 1833, he was named a justice of the peace. Steele helped raise a group of volunteers from the township to help put down the Upper Canada Rebellion. He was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the local militia. With others, he signed a petition advocating the development of a water route connecting the Bay of Quinte to Lake Huron.

Steele was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada as a Reformer from 1841 to 1844 for Simcoe County. During his term in office, he lobbied for improvements on the road connecting Orillia and Toronto.

He died in Medonte Township in 1865. His son Major-General Sir Samuel Steele became one of the first members of the North-West Mounted Police.