William Francis Butler

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Sir William Francis Butler

Lieutenant-General Sir William Francis Butler GCB PC ADC (31 October 1838–7 June 1910) was a 19th Century soldier, writer, and adventurer.

A native of 'Suirville', Ballyslatteen, near Bansha, County Tipperary in Ireland, he entered the army as an ensign at Fermoy Barracks in 1858, becoming captain in 1872 and major in 1874. He took part with distinction in the Red River expedition (1870-71) and the Ashanti operations of 1873-74 under Wolseley and received the CB in 1874. He again served with general Wolseley in the Zulu War (as brevet lieutenant colonel), the campaign of Tel-el-Kebir (after which he was made an aide-de-camp to the Queen) and the Sudan in 1884-86, being employed as colonel on the staff 1885 and brigadier-general 1885-86. In the latter year he was made a KCB. He served as brigadier-general on the staff in Egypt until 1892 when he was promoted to major-general and stationed at Aldershot, subsequent to which he was given command of the southeastern district.

In 1898 he succeeded General William Howley Goodenough as commander-in-chief in South Africa, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. For a short period (December 1898-February 1899), during the absence of Sir Alfred Milner in England, he acted as high commissioner, and as such, and subsequently in his military capacity, he expressed views on the subject of the probabilities of war which were not approved by the home government; he was consequently ordered home to command the western district, and held this post until 1905. He also held the Aldershot command for a brief period in 1900-01. Sir William Butler was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1900 and continued to serve, finally leaving the King's service in 1905. He then retired with Lady Butler to Bansha Castle, County Tipperary where he died five years later at the age of 71 and was buried at Killaldriffe graveyard not far from his ancestral home.

He had long been known as a descriptive writer, since his publication of The Great Lone Land (1872) and other works and he was the biographer (1899) of Sir George Colley. He married on June 11, 1877 Elizabeth Thompson, an accomplished painter of battle scenes, notably The Roll Call (1874), Quatre Bras (1875), Rorke's Drift (1881), The Camel Corps (1891), and The Dawn of Waterloo (1895).

[edit] References

William Francis Butler (1872). The Great Lone Land; a Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America. London.
William Francis Butler (1873). The Wild North Land: Being the Story of a Winter Journey, with Dogs, Across Northern North America. London.
Lieut.-General The Rt. Hon. Sir W. F. Butler G.C.B. (1911). Sir William Butler. An Autobiography London.
Eileen, Viscountess Gormanston; Atkins (1953). A Little Kept. London & New York.
Edward Alexander McCourt (1967). Remember Butler. The Story of Sir William Butler. Toronto.
Martin Ryan (2003) Sir William Francis Butler, a life 1838-1910. Dublin.