Butler was born and died in Dunedin, where he attended Christian Brothers' High School.
[1] He made a single first-class appearance for Otago during the 1901–02 season, against Hawke's Bay.
Opening the batting, he scored two runs in the only innings in which he batted, as Otago won the match by an innings.
[3] He umpired the first Test match ever played by New Zealand, in Christchurch in January 1930.
This biographical article related to a New Zealand cricket person born in the 1870s is a stub.