Thomas Butler

Thomas Rockett Butler (14 February 1913 – 2 June 1963) was the second Australian to participate in the International Stoke Mandeville Games, the precursor to the modern Paralympic Games, when he represented Australia in swimming in 1953 and again in 1954. Butler won the backstroke event in swimming at the 2nd International Stoke Mandeville Games in 1953, and was awarded his medal by the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Patricia Hornsby-Smith. Butler placed second in the same event in 1954.

Butler was a farmer in Manjimup when he was paralysed following an industrial accident in 1947, aged 34. He spent over two years rehabilitating in Hollywood Hospital in Perth, Western Australia. Following his release from hospital in 1950, he drove home to Manjimup in his new Holden car, with specially designed controls that he could drive with his fingers. He died 2 June 1963 and was buried in the Busselton Cemetery.