Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Harte Keatinge Butler, KCB, KCMG (28 August 1870 – 22 April 1935) was a British Army general during the First World War.
[2] He was educated at Harrow and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst,[3] and was commissioned into the Dorset Regiment on 29 October 1890.
[9] Butler served in the Second Boer War in South Africa, including the Battles of Spion Kop (January 1900), Vaal Krantz and Tugela Heights (February 1900); he rescued a wounded man from the River Tugela during the retreat from Spion Kop.
[12] For his war services he was mentioned in despatches, received the Queen's South Africa Medal, and was appointed Brevet Major on 29 November 1900.
[15] Following his return from South Africa, Butler was seconded in order to attend the Staff College, Camberley, in 1904, from where he graduated in 1906.
[18] Butler was selected to command the 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers on 28 June 1914, the same day of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but on the outbreak of war was instead retained at Aldershot until the end of the training season.
[23][24] On 22 December, following Haig's promotion to be commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Butler was appointed deputy chief of staff at GHQ in place of Brigadier General Robert Whigham; Haig had wanted him as chief of staff, but he was too junior.
[35] From March 1919 he was General Officer Commanding 2nd Division, first in the Army of Occupation in Germany until October 1919[citation needed] then from November 1919 to February 1923 at Aldershot.
[38] Butler ultimately lived at Roden Lodge, Shawbury,[39] in Shropshire, where he died on 22 April 1935.