In the same year he was asked to join Prof Patrick Blackett to do operational research in anti-aircraft guns in Richmond, in relation to defending the country during the Second World War.

He spent much of the war at various anti-aircraft installations around the country and while not engaged in work he was spending what time he could seeing one Gwendoline Harrison, a scholarship student who he had met at Cambridge when she was evacuated from London.

He also took part in the commissioning of the Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard (ADH) Schmidt telescope [4] at Bloemfontein, South Africa which produced much valuable early material for galactic and extragalactic research.

He authored numerous articles for the press and was called upon to comment in print or on television on topics such as comets, satellites, eclipses and astronomy in general [10] .

As early as 1958 Dr Butler was promoting the idea of a large astronomical satellite (LAS) as part of his work with the British National Committee for Space Research (BNCSR) and he had a leading role in explaining the research that could be conducted from such a platform both to the scientific community [11] and to the public at large .

By the 1970s Dr. Butler was fully involved in European space research collaboration and in 1972 he edited a report on aspects of the ESRO Stabilised Satellite TD 1 .

He and Gwen were keen tennis and badminton players and Hugh applied his practical skills to a number of significant DIY construction projects.