William Francis Butler

William Butler (1883)

Sir William Francis Butler GCB (born October 31, 1838 in Suirville , Co. Tipperary , Ireland , † June 7, 1910 in Bansha Castle , Co. Tipperary) was a British lieutenant general and author. He fought in various British colonial wars (including on the Gold Coast and in South Africa ) and wrote highly regarded travelogues, biographies and works of narrative literature. Butler was a member of the Royal Geographical Society .

Life

William Butler was the seventh child of Richard and Ellen Butler, from Suirville, Ireland. The Butlers descended from Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormonde . Williams' earliest childhood memories included the Great Famine in Ireland, the Evictions, and Daniel O'Connell . Since the family was Roman Catholic, the persecution of Catholics, the criminal laws and the British government were constant topics. These things made a lasting impression on William. From 1847 he attended Jesuit College in Tullabeg, King's County, and thereafter Dr. James Quinn's School in Dublin .

First years in the army

On September 17, 1858, he joined the British Army on foot as an ensign of the 69th regiment . After serving at the Fermoy depot for two years , he went to the regiment headquarters in Tonghoo, Burma . In the spring of 1862 the regiment was transferred to Madras and in 1863 Butler took two months' leave to travel the west coast of India from Calcutta to Cape Cormorin. In Vellore he made sure that a memorial was erected for the members of his regiment killed there in 1806. On November 17, 1863 he was promoted to lieutenant .

The regiment returned home in the spring of 1864, and On the return journey Butler stopped at St. Helena for two days, two days "immersed in fame and sorrow". The regiment was transferred from its garrison in Gosport to Aldershot in 1865 . Butler began writing his regimental history here, which was published in 1870 ( A Narrative of the Historical Events connected with the 69th Regiment ). In the summer of 1866 Butler went with his regiment to the Channel Islands , where he made the acquaintance of Victor Hugo . After a five-month layover in Curragh , Ireland, the regiment embarked for Canada in August 1867 . It was stationed in Brantford , north of Lake Erie . Butler received three months' leave in September during which he toured "the glorious prairies" with their herds of buffalo.

Canada, Red River Expedition

In the spring of 1868, he replaced Lieutenant Redvers Buller as an officer on watch at the border and had to travel 1,500 miles a month to visit the posts. In September 1869 he received home leave. In March 1870 his father died and was buried at Killardrigh; his mother had died in 1849. Butler took the return trip to Canada, but was told before he had left Ireland that Colonel Wolseley , whom he had met two years earlier, there was an expedition to the Red River ( Red River together). There the Red River Rebellion of the Métis , under their leader Louis Riel , broke out in 1869 . He immediately wired "Remember Butler 69th regiment" . While Wolseley's staff ran out of vacancies by the time Butler reached Toronto , he was given an independent mission to the Red River settlement to find out what the situation was like.

Butler set out on June 8th, traveled across the United States, down the Red River to Winnipeg , met Louis Riel, and on August 4th encountered the expedition about halfway through their intended route. He accompanied them to Fort Garry , from which Riel had fled, and stayed there after the expedition left.

On October 24th, he went on a new mission to Saskatchewan to report on the troop needs, the Indians and the fur trade there. He reached northern Saskatchewan at Carlton , followed it to its origins in the Rocky Mountains, and then traveled down the river, where on February 20, 1871, after a winter journey of 2,700 miles, he reached Fort Garry again. About his trip he wrote the report The Great Lone Land , which appeared in 1872 and had four editions by the next year. His report to the Vice Governor of Manitoba appeared in the appendix to this book.

His work earned him a lot of praise but little substantive recognition. It was not until April 13, 1872, that Butler was given command of an independent company. A successful land sale enabled him to travel. He returned to Canada, visited Lake Athabasca and collected material for his next book, The Wild North Land , published in 1873. In late August 1873 he was back in Ottawa and learned that Sir Garnet Wolseley was putting together a military expedition against the Ashanti . He hurried back to England and sent another telegram ahead. On arrival he found Wolseley's orders to follow him to West Africa.

Ashanti War

Butler reached Cape Coast Castle on October 22, 1873. He was immediately sent to Accra to travel inland to the western Akim, to muster their warriors and to prevent the Ashanti army from retreating across the Prah. This task turned out to be impracticable. With extreme difficulty he got the Akim to advance towards Kumasi , east of the main thrust. At the end of January 1874, Butler was less than 20 miles from Kumasi with 1,400 Akim. With that he had done his job. Wolseley reported in the London Gazette on March 7, 1874: "He has effected a most important diversion in favor of the main body and has detained before him all the forces of one of the most powerful Ashanti chiefs."

Butler had multiple fever attacks and had to spend two months in Netley Hospital before he could return to England. He was one of the 35 officers that Wolseley had selected for this mission and who later formed the so-called Ashanti ring (the group gained a significant influence on the Victorian British Army through mutual support and assumed the leading positions by the end of the century). After the Ashanti mission he was promoted to major, made Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) and received the campaign medal with a clasp. He described his part in the Ashanti campaign in the report Akim-Foo: the History of a Failure , 1875.

South Africa I, Zulu War

While he was writing this book and recovering in Ireland, he was called to Natal on a special assignment. Sir Garnet Wolseley had temporarily become governor there in February 1875 to ensure law and order. Butler accompanies him and has been appointed protector of Indian immigrants with a seat in council and assembly. He was sent on a mission to the Orange Free State , to Kimberley , and to Basutoland , during which he made the acquaintance of many residents, British and Boers. He returned to England in October and became the Army's Assistant Quartermaster General on November 30th . He stayed in this post until he went back to South Africa at the end of February 1879 to take part in the Zulu War. He stayed there until the end of the year, but did not take part in the fighting as site commander of Durban . He was mentioned again in the war report and on April 21, 1880 was appointed Lieutenant Colonel Brevet .

From July 1, 1880 to the end of August 1884, Butler was, with the exception of the period from August to October 1882, when he participated in Wolseley's staff in the expedition to put down the Urabi uprising in Egypt, a staff officer in Devonport . He took part in the battle of Tel-el-Kebir , in which the Egyptian army was crushed, was mentioned again in the war report ( The London Gazette , November 2, 1882), received the campaign medal with clasp, the Medjidieh Order, 3rd class and the Bronze Star . On November 18, 1882, he became the Queen's adjutant with the rank of colonel.

Sudan, Karthum, Giniss

As in 1884, the Nile Expedition to rescue Gordon and relief of Khartoum before the Mahdi uprising was discussed, asked Wolseley Butler for advice. Butler was very committed to boating up the Nile, as had been done on the Red River Expedition. He had met Gordon a few years earlier and was very impressed by him. He regarded the rescue operation as " the very first war during the Victorian era, in which the object was entirely noble and worthy ". On August 12, he was given command of 400 boats, which were equipped and ready for action within a month; some of them were already on their way. Butler traveled to Egypt in September and made every effort over the next three months to get the boats and soldiers across the Nile cataracts. After that he went to Headquarters in Korti and was assigned to General Earles River Column .

The victory at Kirbekan on February 10, 1885 is largely due to him, as he had explored the area on which the Mahdists had set up and was able to convince Earle not to attack the Mahdists head-on, but to force them to turn. When the column moved down the Nile, Butler took command of the rearguard that remained in Meroë . In June he led his troop to Dongola and returned to England. He was again mentioned in the war report ( The London Gazette , April 10 and August 25, 1885) and received two clips.

Great Britain made no further attempts to penetrate Sudan for the next 10 years and limited itself to holding a few bases. Only Suakin and Wadi Halfa , near the Egyptian border, remained occupied. In September Butler returned to Wadi Halfa. He was given command of the troops on the border with Sudan on July 1, 1885 with the local rank of brigadier general . In December the Mahdists marched up again from Dongola and attacked him at Kosheh. Butler had four battalions, two of them British, some cavalry and mounted infantry. He also had some forts built. The Mahdists interrupted the railway line, but otherwise could not reach much and were decisively defeated at Giniss when reinforcements came from Cairo at the end of the month . Butler commanded one of the two brigades in General Stephenson's armed forces in that battle and was mentioned again in the war report ( The London Gazette , February 6, 1886). Four British battalions were left behind in Wadi Halfa under his command, but suffered greatly from the great heat. Therefore, they were replaced by Egyptian troops in May and Butler himself relieved of illness at the end of June.

England

He returned to England bitter. He had received no wages for his efforts, his warnings and protests met with opposition, and there was no new use for him. On November 25th he was made Knight of the Order of Bath (KCB) and spent the next two years in Ireland and Britain. He wrote The Campaign of the Cataracts , published in 1885, and, himself a home rule advocate, became a close friend of Charles Stewart Parnell . In the fall of 1888, he and Colonel Macgregor conducted an investigation in the Ordnance Store Department . The report he drafted placed so much guilt on the Civilian Administration of the War Department that it was not made public. During 1889 Butler was negotiating the purchase of army depots in south and east London.

Egypt

Elizabeth Southerden Thompson, self-portrait, 1869

In February 1890, Butler returned to Egypt to take command of the Alexandria garrison . In 1877 he married Elizabeth Southerden Thompson , a well-known painter of military pictures ( The Roll Call , 1874; Quatre Bras , 1875; Scotland Forever!, 1881). With her he toured Palestine , once out of religious interest and also to visit the sites of the Napoleonic wars.

On December 7, 1892, he was promoted to major general and on November 11, he was given command of a brigade in Aldershot , Hampshire. On February 24, he moved to the command of the southeastern district and received an award for his services on December 12, 1894.

South Africa II

In 1898 he succeeded the late General William Howley Goodenough as Commander in Chief in South Africa , with the rank of Lieutenant General . During Sir Alfred Milner's absence , he was also Deputy High Commissioner in South Africa for a short time (November 2, 1898 to February 14, 1899) . After Milner's return in February 1899, Butler was relieved of civil administration duties. He had been commissioned to work out a defense plan for the Cape Colony and the Natal Colony in the event of sudden hostilities . He therefore traveled to Natal and worked out his plan, but, since he expected the War Ministry to reject it, kept it to himself until he was decisively asked to submit it in June.

His relationship with the High Commissioner was clearly strained as both had different views on the situation. For Butler everything was just “ a plot to force war on the Transvaal ”, which he tried to prevent by all means. A reprimand from the war ministry finally led him to submit his departure on July 4th, which was also accepted. He surrendered his command on August 23 and returned to England.

Western District

There he took over command of the Western District on September 8, 1899 . Butler held this command for six years. This time was interrupted by the four months in which he commanded the Aldershot garrison in late 1900 / early 1901 instead of Redvers Bullers , who took over command of the Boer War . Butler was promoted to Lieutenant General on October 9, 1900. In February 1903 he testified before the commission about the Boer War. In the spring of 1905 he chaired the committee on the use of military supply stores in South Africa. His May 22 report resulted in the formation of a commission chaired by Sir George Farwell to temper his harsh criticism.

retirement

On October 31, 1905, he was put on the retirement list after reaching retirement age of 67. In June 1906 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Bath and in 1909 was appointed to the Irish Council of State ( Privy Council ). He became Governor of the Royal Hibernian Military School , Senate Member of the National University of Ireland and Member of the Board of National Education in Ireland.

Butler died on June 7, 1910 in Bansha Castle , Co. Tipperary, where he had resided since his retirement, and was buried with military honors in the family burial site at Killardrigh. He left behind his wife, who edited his unfinished memoir, three sons and two daughters. The youngest daughter, Eileen, married Jenico Preston, Viscount Gormanston, in 1912.

Works

Butler's extensive publications include narrative literature and travelogues. He also wrote many autobiographical accounts, most of which were posthumously edited by his widow, Lady Elizabeth Butler (1850-1933).

• The Great Lone Land; a Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America . London, 1872
• The Wild North Land: Being the Story of a Winter Journey, with Dogs, Across Northern North America . London, 1873
• Far out: Rovings retold , 1880
• Red Cloud , the Solitary Sioux , 1882
• Charles George Gordon , 1889
• Sir Charles Napier , 1890
• Sir George Pomeroy Colley , 1899
• From Naboth's Vineyard: being Impressions formed during a Fourth Visit to South Africa , 1907
• The Light of the West, with some other Wayside Thoughts , 1909
• From Sketch Book and Diary , Adam & Charles Black, 1909
• Sir William Butler: An Autobiography (1911, edited by his youngest daughter)
• An Autobiography, with Illustrations from Sketches by the Author (1922, edited by his wife)

literature

• Leigh Maxwell: The Ashanti Ring. Sir Garnet Wolseley's Campaigns, 1870-1882 . Leo Cooper in association with Secker & Warburg, London 1985, ISBN 0-436-27447-7 .
• Edward A. McCourt: Remember Butler. The Story of Sir William Butler. Routledge & Kegan Paul et al. a., London a. a. 1967.

Web links

• Entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.
• William Francis Butler . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
• Works by William Francis Butler in Project Gutenberg ( currently usually not available for users from Germany )