Stephen Butler

Major-General Stephen Seymour Butler, (6 October 1880 – 16 July 1964) was a senior officer in the British Army.

Early life and family Stephen Seymour Butler was born on 6 October 1880, the son of Rev. George Hew Butler (died 1929) and Florence (nee Measor) . In 1913, Stephen Butler married Phyllis (died 1964), daughter of Captain Harold Septimus Basil Critchley-Salmonson (died 1942). They had two sons:

Military career Butler joined the 3rd (Militia) Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers (later the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers) in 1897. and explored northern Arabia disguised as a Bedouin and drew up the first map of the route from Baghdad to Damascus. and involved in operations in Southern Kordofan in Sudan in 1910. He served as a general staff officer, grade 2 (GSO2) from October 1915 onwards, taking over from Cyril Wagstaff. 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). He was wounded and mentioned in despatches four times; he received the Distinguished Service Order, the French Croix de Guerre and the Order of the Sacred Treasure (3rd Class), and was appointed a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. Butler was also promoted to the rank of Major on 12 August 1915 and made a brevet lieutenant colonel in June 1918; he served as a General staff Officer for much of the war, beginning with an appointment in the 3rd Division in the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (May to October 1915) as GSO2 on the staff of General William Birdwood who commanded the ANZAC Corps. After several months in the 2nd division with the MEF, he was posted to an equivalent position in France in February 1916, which lasted until January 1918, when he was promoted to the 1st Division; he remained there until March 1919. He relinquished his post on 11 August 1923 and was posted as a military attaché in Bucharest the following month, serving until April 1926. Promotion to colonel followed in November 1925, with seniority from June 1922. On 1 October 1926 he was appointed an inspector general of the West African Frontier Force (later the Royal West African Frontier Force), and for which he was granted the temporary rank of colonel on the staff whilst so employed.

On 28 March 1930 was appointed a Brigadier Commanding Troops and Commandant in the Sudan Defence Force with the rank of temporary brigadier up to 16 July 1934, when he was promoted to Major-General. He then command the 48th (South Midland) Division of the Territorial Army (TA) between 1935 and 1939,

Butler retired in 1939, but was re-employed on the outbreak of World War II. He was Head of the Military Mission to Turkey between 1939 and 1940 and liaison in Africa (1940–41), before serving as Head of the Military Mission to Ethiopia until 1943. He died on 16 July 1964 and his home in Hambledon, Hampshire.