[4][5][6] His father was the son of Colonel Thomas Butler, of Bury Lodge in Hambledon, Hampshire, and was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA 1870, MA 1874); ordained a priest in 1872, after serving in several curacies, he was successively the Vicar of Herriard (1882–87), Wood Dalling (1888–96), and Gazeley with Kentford (1897–1914).
He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 1 April 1900 and fought in the Second Boer War of 1899–1901 from where he was invalided with malaria and typhoid having taken part in the advance to Pretoria and operations in the Koomati Valley.
He served with the King's African Rifles between August 1905 and April 1908, during which time he was posted in East Africa (1906)[10] and explored northern Arabia disguised as a Bedouin and drew up the first map of the route from Baghdad to Damascus.
[4] When he returned his transferred to the South Staffordshire Regiment,[4] before being employed with the Egyptian Army between April 1909 and May 1915, he was promoted to Captain on 18 January 1908 and involved in operations in Southern Kordofan in Sudan in 1910.
[11] In January 1916, he returned to serve with the EEF for two months, before being transferred with the ANZAC Corps to France and Belgium in March 1916; he remained there until the end of the War (11 November 1918).