{{Short description|Former NFU president}} {{Use British English|date=August 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Richard Clive Butler | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | office = President of National Farmers' Union of England and Wales | term_start = 1979 | term_end = 1986 | deputy = | predecessor = Henry Plumb | successor = Simon Gourlay | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1929|01|12|df=y}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|01|28|1929|01|12|df=y}} | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = {{hlist|Farmer|merchant banker}} | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''Sir Richard Clive Butler''' (12 January 1929 – 28 January 2012) was a British farmer and merchant banker, President of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales.
==Early life== One of the sons of the Conservative politician Rab Butler, by his marriage to Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld, daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Courtauld, the young Butler was educated at Eton College and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Horse Guards.<ref name="BP">''Burke's Peerage'', vol. 3 (2003), p. 4044</ref>
The Courtaulds owned estates in north Essex, and on completing his National service, Butler concerned himself with estate management.<ref name="Tel">[https://web.archive.org/web/20180330012608/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/9055114/Sir-Richard-Butler.html "Sir Richard Butler"], in ''The Daily Telegraph'', 6 February 2012; [http://clementjones.com/ps30/ps30_287.html "Butler, Sir Richard"], clementjones.com, accessed 22 December 2022</ref>
==Career== Butler became a farmer in 1953<ref name="WW" /> and inherited a 1500-acre arable estate in Essex on the death of his mother in 1954.<ref name="Tel" /> He was an active member of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, joining its council in 1962.<ref name="WW" /> In 1970, he became vice-president, and in 1971 deputy president to Henry Plumb, continuing almost until the end of the 1970s.<ref name="Tel" /> He was then president from 1979 to 1986.<ref name="WW" />
He was knighted by H. M. the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 10 November 1981.<ref>''The London Gazette'', Issue 48819, 11 December 1981, [https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/48819/page/15769 p. 15769]</ref>
After retiring from the NFU for a year, Butler was president of COPA, the union of European farmers, and also took on business directorships.<ref name="Tel" /> In the City of London, he became a director of County Natwest Investment Management and served as chairman from 1989 to 1996.<ref name="WW">"Butler, Hon. Sir Richard (Clive)", in ''Who Was Who 2011–2015'' (2016, {{ISBN|9781472924322}})</ref>
Butler listed his recreations in ''Who's Who'' as “hunting, shooting, DIY”<ref name="WW" /> and was chairman of the East Essex Hunt for forty years.<ref name="Tel" />
==Personal life== On 5 July 1952, Butler married Susan Anne Maud Walker, a daughter of Patrick Bruce Walker and Sybil Middleton Turner. They had a daughter, Antonia Mary (1954), and twin sons, Richard Michael and Christopher Patrick (1956).<ref name="BP" />
==Honours== *High Sheriff of Essex, 1969<ref name="WW" /> *Deputy Lieutenant of Essex, 1972<ref name="WW" /> *Knight Bachelor, 1981<ref name="WW" />
==Notes== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Richard Clive}} Category:1929 births Category:2012 deaths Category:Presidents of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales Category:Deputy lieutenants of Essex Category:High sheriffs of Essex Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Royal Horse Guards officers Category:Sons of life peers