[3] Butler did not approve of the policies of Lord Irwin, whom he thought a "weak, well-meaning viceroy" for his moves towards greater Indian self-government.

[13] Butler, by contrast, wrote to his son Rab (13 August 1930) that "There is nothing like a cut across the buttocks for checking religious emotions – I have generally ordered whipping for the low class people caught at this game".

[13] Butler had wanted to be an official delegate to the Round Table Conference and wrote of Gandhi (28 July 1931) "All this slobber over him disgusts me".

His son Rab, then Under-Secretary of State for India, lobbied Buckingham Palace and the Home Office for his father to be given a job.

The diarist Chips Channon, who was Rab's PPS, thought Sir Monty "a fat little fellow of sixty" but Lady Butler "a grand old girl".

His obituary in The Times wrote of his "knack in the handling of men" and of how "ardent disciples of the Gandhian cult were turned into loyal supporters through the tonic effect of responsibility for administration".

The Nawab of Bhopal and the Maharao of Kota State wrote to Rab (who by then was Chancellor of the Exchequer) praising his "illustrious" father.