Sergeant Hugh Matheson was born in Nova Scotia in 1838, the second of twelve children of Angus Matheson and Margaret Grant.

He served with No. 2 Company, Queen’s Own Rifles since at least 1865 and worked as an assistant pharmacist in his father’s drugstore at 100 York St, Toronto.

In June 1866 he was called out to challenge the Fenian invasion and on the 2nd was shot through the knee at the Battle of Ridgeway. He was hospitalized in St Catherines where the wound became infected and his leg was amputated. Unfortunately this wasn’t enough to save him and he died aged 28, on Saturday June 9, 1866 attended on by a brother and sister.

Matheson and Corporal William Lackey (who died of his wounds on June 11th) were given a full military funeral on June 13th. His body was placed in the receiving vault at St James`Cemetery ( Rev. Henry James Grasett present) and was removed to the Toronto Necropolis 18 June 1866