William Butler (British Army officer)

{{Short description|British Army officer and writer (1838–1910)}} {{EngvarB|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = [[Lieutenant general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] [[The Right Honourable]] | name = Sir William Butler | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB}} | image = William Francis Butler (1883).png | caption = | birth_date = 31 October 1838 | death_date = 7 June 1910 (aged 71) | burial_label = | burial_place = [[Killaldriffe]], [[Co. Tipperary]], Ireland | birth_place = [[Golden, County Tipperary|Golden, Co. Tipperary]], Ireland | death_place = [[Bansha|Bansha Castle]], [[Co. Tipperary]], Ireland | burial_coordinates =  | nickname = | allegiance = {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} United Kingdom | branch = [[File:Flag of the British Army.svg|23px]] [[British Army]] | service_years = | rank = [[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] | unit = [[69th Foot]] | commands = [[South African Republic|South Africa]] | battles = | awards = [[File:Order of the Bath UK ribbon.svg|30px]] [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath|GCB]] | spouse = [[Elizabeth Thompson]] | relations = | other_work = }}

[[Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-General]] '''Sir William Francis Butler''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|PCi}} (31 October 1838{{snd}}7 June 1910) was an Irish [[British Army]] officer and writer.

==Military career== [[File:William Francis Butler Vanity Fair 9 January 1907.jpg|right|thumb|General Butler caricatured by ''[[Leslie Ward|Spy]]'' for [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], 1907]] A scion of the [[Butler dynasty]] via the [[James Butler, 9th Earl of Ormond|Earls of Ormond]], he was born at Ballyslatteen, [[Golden, County Tipperary]], [[Ireland]], the son of Richard Butler and Ellen ''née'' Dillon.<ref>[https://www.burkespeerage.com/ www.burkespeerage.com]</ref> [[Great Famine (Ireland)|The great famine of 1847]] and scenes of suffering and eviction were amongst his earliest recollections. He was educated chiefly by the [[Jesuit]]s at [[Tullabeg College]].<ref name= "but"> {{cite book |last= Butler|first= Sir William|year= 1911|title= Sir William Butler: An Autobiography |publisher= Constable and Company|location=London}}</ref>

Butler entered the Army as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] of the [[69th Foot]] at [[Fermoy Barracks]] in 1858, becoming [[Captain (armed forces)|captain]] in 1872 and [[Major (rank)|major]] in 1874. He took part with distinction in the [[Wolseley Expedition|Red River expedition]] (1870–71)<ref>"Fighting to prevent genocide" by Peter Shawn Taylor in the (Toronto) ''National Post'' 22 June 2019, says Butler had a "key role in creating what is today the [[RCMP]], and was instrumental in protecting and defending the rights of Indigenous people throughout the Prairies" when Canada acquired [[Rupert's Land]] in 1870.</ref> and the [[Ashanti Empire|Ashanti]] operations of 1873–74 under [[Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley|Wolseley]] and was appointed a [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]] in 1874.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Butler, Sir William Francis|volume=4|page=888}}</ref>

Butler married on 11 June 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).<ref name="EB1911"/> They had six children. His elder daughter, Elizabeth Butler, married [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lt.-Col.]] [[Kingscote Park, Gloucestershire|Randolph Albert Fitzhardinge Kingscote]] (6 Feb 1867{{snd}}8 Dec 1940) on 24 July 1903 and his younger daughter, Eileen Butler, married [[Viscount Gormanston|Jenico Preston, 15th Viscount Gormanston]] (16 July 1879{{snd}}7 November 1925) on 26 October 1911.

Butler again served with General Wolseley in the [[Zulu War]] (as [[Brevet (military)|brevet lieutenant-colonel]]), the [[Battle of Tel el-Kebir|campaign of Tel-el-Kebir]] (after which he was appointed ''[[aide-de-camp]]'' to [[Queen Victoria|the Queen]]) and the [[Sudan]] in 1884–86, becoming [[colonel]] on the staff 1885 and brigadier-general 1885–86. In the latter year, he was promoted [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]. He served as [[brigadier-general]] on the staff in [[Egypt]] until 1892 when he was promoted to [[major-general]] and stationed at [[Aldershot]],<ref name="EB1911"/> subsequent to which he was given command of the [[South-Eastern District (British Army)|South-Eastern District]] in March 1896,<ref name=commands>{{cite web|url=http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Army%20Commands%201860-.pdf|title=Army Commands|access-date=21 November 2015}}</ref> resident as Lieutenant of [[Dover Castle]].<ref>[https://cinqueports.org/history/lord-warden-officials/deputy-constable/ www.cinqueports.org]</ref>

In 1898 he succeeded [[General]] [[William Howley Goodenough|Sir William Howley Goodenough]] as commander-in-chief in South Africa, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. For a short period (December 1898{{snd}}February 1899), during the absence of [[Alfred Milner|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 (British Army)|Western District]], and held this post until 1905.<ref name=commands/> He also held the [[Aldershot Command]] for a brief period from 1900 to 1901.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=commands/> Sir William Butler was promoted to lieutenant-general in 1900 and continued to serve, finally leaving [[Edward VII|the King]]'s service in 1905.

In October 1905, having reached the age limit of sixty-seven, he was placed on the retired list. The few years of life which remained to him he spent at [[Bansha|Bansha Castle]] in Ireland,<ref>[https://www.banshacastle.com/ www.banshacastle.com]</ref> devoted chiefly to the cause of education. He was a frequent lecturer both in [[Trinity College Dublin|Dublin]] and the [[Provinces of Ireland|provinces]] on historical, social, and economic matters. Butler was known as a [[Irish Home Rule movement|Home Ruler]] and an admirer of [[Charles Stewart Parnell]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jeffery|first1=Keith|title=An Irish Empire?: Aspects of Ireland and the British Empire|date=1996|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=0719038731|page=108}}</ref> He was a member of the Senate of the [[National University of Ireland]], and a commissioner of the [[Department of Education and Youth|Board of National Education]].<ref name= "but"/> In June 1906, he was elevated as a [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]] in the [[1906 Birthday Honours]],<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27926|page=4459|date=26 June 1906|supp=y}}</ref> and in 1909 he was sworn of the [[Irish Privy Council]]. Butler died at Bansha Castle and was buried at the cemetery of [[Killaldriffe]], a few miles distant and not far from his ancestral home.

He had long been known as a descriptive writer, since his publication of ''The Great Lone Land'' (1872), describing the [[Wolseley expedition|Red River Expedition]] in suppression of the [[Red River Rebellion]], and subsequent travel across Western Canada for the Government, to report on conditions there.<ref name=lone>{{cite web|url= http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/butler_william_francis_13E.html|title=BUTLER, Sir WILLIAM FRANCIS|access-date=8 June 2022}}</ref> Other works include biographies of [[Charles George Gordon]] (1889)<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Butler|first=Sir William Francis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i6dCAAAAYAAJ|title=Charles George Gordon|date=1892|publisher=Macmillan and Company|language=en}}</ref> and [[George Pomeroy Colley|Sir George Colley]] (1899).<ref name="EB1911" /> In his biography of Gordon, he wrote the epigram "''The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards''"<ref name=":0" />:85 which has since frequently been misattributed to [[Thucydides]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Greitens|first=Eric|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agd-BAAAQBAJ|title=Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life|date=10 March 2015|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=978-0-544-32399-5|pages=282|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=A handbook to the reception of Thucydides|date=2014|others=Christine M. Lee, Neville Morley|isbn=978-1-118-98021-7|location=Chichester, West Sussex, UK|oclc=881824389}}</ref>

General Butler had started work on his autobiography a few years before his death but died before it was completed. His youngest daughter, [[Viscount Gormanston|Eileen, who married Viscount Gormanston]], completed the work and had it published in 1911. Lady Gormanston found among his papers a poem he had written, which began: [[File:House Butler Armorial Bearings.jpg|right|100px]] ''Give me but six-foot-three (one inch to spare)'' ''Of Irish earth, and dig it anywhere;'' ''And for my poor soul say an Irish prayer'' ''Above the spot''.<ref name= "but"/>

==See also== * [[Butler dynasty]]

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==Works== * {{cite book |editor1-last=O'Brien |editor1-first=R. Barry |editor1-link=Richard Barry O'Brien |title=Studies in Irish History, 1649–1775 |date=1903 |publisher=Browne and Nolan |location=Dublin |pages=1–65 |language=en |chapter=[[s:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775/Oliver Cromwell in Ireland|Oliver Cromwell in Ireland]]}}

==References== *William Francis Butler (1872). [https://books.google.com/books?id=r3VXAAAAcAAJ ''The Great Lone Land; a Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America'']. London. * William Francis Butler (1873). [https://books.google.com/books?id=sj8TAAAAYAAJ ''The Wild North Land: Being the Story of a Winter Journey, with Dogs, Across Northern North America'']. London. * William Francis Butler (1882). [https://books.google.com/books?id=5e0BAAAAQAAJ ''Red Cloud, the Solitary Sioux: A Story of the Great Prairie'']. [[Roberts Brothers (publishers)|Roberts Brothers]], Boston. * Lieut.-General The Rt. Hon. Sir W. F. Butler G.C.B. (1911). [https://books.google.com/books?id=vDwPAAAAYAAJ ''Sir William Butler. An Autobiography''] Scribner's Sons, New York. * Eileen Gormanston; Atkins (1953). ''A Little Kept''. London & New York. * [[Edward McCourt|Edward Alexander McCourt]] (1967). ''Remember Butler. The Story of Sir William Butler''. Toronto. * Martin Ryan (2003) ''William Francis Butler, a life 1838–1910''. Dublin.

==External links== {{Commons category|William Francis Butler}} * {{wikisource author-inline}} * [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6598 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''] * {{Gutenberg author | id=6035}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=William Francis Butler |sopt=tight}} *{{Librivox author |id=16579}}

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=[[Lord William Seymour (British Army officer)|Lord William Seymour]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[South-Eastern District (British Army)|GOC South-Eastern District]]|years=1896–1898}} {{s-aft|after=[[Leslie Rundle|Sir Leslie Rundle]]}} |- {{s-bef|before=[[Frederick Forestier-Walker|Sir Frederick Forestier-Walker]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Western District (British Army)|GOC Western District]]|years=1899–1905}} {{s-aft|after=''Command disbanded''}} |- {{s-bef|before=[[Alexander George Montgomery Moore|Sir Alexander Moore]]}} {{s-ttl|title=[[Aldershot Command|GOC-in-C Aldershot Command]] (acting)|years=1900–1901}} {{s-aft|after=[[Redvers Buller|Sir Redvers Buller]]}} {{end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, William Francis}} [[Category:1838 births]] [[Category:1910 deaths]] [[Category:People educated at St Stanislaus College]] [[Category:People from Golden, County Tipperary]] [[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]] [[Category:Military personnel from County Tipperary]] [[Category:19th-century Anglo-Irish people]] [[Category:19th-century Irish non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath]] [[Category:69th Regiment of Foot officers]] [[Category:British Army lieutenant generals]] [[Category:British Army personnel of the Mahdist War]] [[Category:Irish officers in the British Army]] [[Category:British Army personnel of the Anglo-Egyptian War]] [[Category:People of the Red River Rebellion]] [[Category:British Army personnel of the Anglo-Zulu War]] [[Category:British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Ashanti War]] [[Category:Governors of the Cape Colony]] [[Category:19th-century Irish biographers]] [[Category:Irish male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Irish male writers]] [[Category:British male biographers]] [[Category:19th-century Irish travel writers]] [[Category:Writers from County Tipperary]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of Ireland]]