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Annie’s father was born in Ireland, joined the Hudson’s Bay Company and arrived at York Factory in 1812. Around 1814 he married, à la façon du pays, Sarah McNab, the daughter of Thomas McNab and a Saulteaux woman. In 1850, Annie married Andrew Bannatyne, a Hudson’s Bay Company employee who went on to become a very wealthy merchant. She became a leading force in early philanthropy at Red River. Her ladies association did extensive fundraising for causes such as the Winnipeg General Hospital. She is perhaps best known for horsewhipping Toronto writer and poet Charles Mair as a consequence for the disparaging remarks he had made about Half-Breed women and Red River society in letters published in the Toronto Globe. The daughter and wife of two of the most prominent men during the Red River Settlement era, Annie Bannatyne’s horsewhipping of Charles Mair, an act still remembered by some people to this day, proved that she was not a mere appendage to the men in her life. |
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