In 1866, University College at the University of Toronto commemorated the three students killed at the Battle of Ridgeway with a memorial stained glass window erected at the front of convocation hall and made possible by University College contributors. The window was destroyed in the 1890 fire, and replaced in 1910 by the memorial window in East Hall.

The Toronto militia volunteers were fighting Irish-American Fenian insurgents who had invaded Canada near Fort Erie in the hopes of holding Canada ransom for Irish independence. Between 1866 and 1871, this group raided Canadian territory from New Brunswick to Manitoba. Nine riflemen from Toronto’s The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada were killed, including three University of Toronto students. The entire city shut down for the funeral procession to the Necropolis.