He competed in the individual and team road race events at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
In the 1932 Olympics, the team rode cross-country en route to the competition when Butler was injured during a training ride in Toronto.
Consequentially, he started the 100 km (62.14 miles) Olympic road race badly handicapped.
Nonetheless, he competed and supported the Chambers brothers, Ernest and Stanley, who won silver medals in the tandem sprint.
After World War II he won the national 24-hours time trial championship in 1950, covering 458.18 miles (19.09 mph) in atrocious weather conditions to set a new British record.