Sir William Butler

Sir William Butler I Tullabeg 1847-1849

Sir William Butler (1838-1910), lieutenant general and author, was a native of Golden, County Tipperary, who attended Tullabeg in 1847-9. Commissioned into the British army’s 69th Foot, he served in India, Guernsey and Canada. There, he performed several military missions. It was on his recommendation that the North-West Mounted Police – ‘the Mounties’ – was formed in 1873. Fired by the lure of Canada’s great rivers, prairies and forests, he undertook extended trips of exploration, travelling to the Pacific Ocean by foot, dog sled, horseback and canoe, living by hunting and fishing. He was also an intellectual. He wrote two classic accounts of his travels, several military biographies and Red Cloud (1882), an adventure story for boys that was later translated into Irish. His friends included Victor Hugo, Charles Stewart Parnell, John Redmond and the reforming general, Sir Garnet Wolseley. His military career took him to Africa, where he served in the Zulu War, in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882 and against the Mahdi in the Sudan. His public support for Home Rule, Catholic faith and zeal for military reform meant that many in the establishment regarded him as a troublemaker – ‘at heart an Irish rebel’. Sent to command in South Africa, he strongly opposed war with the Boer republics, presciently respecting the martial potential of the Boer farmers and doubting the British army’s preparedness for a modern conflict. He resigned before the war broke out, returning to a staff appointment in England. Promoted to lieutenant general and made a knight of the Bath, in 1905 he retired to Bansha Castle, near Cahir, in South Tipperary. In Ireland, he led an active life: he was a senator of NUI, an education commissioner and a popular lecturer. Elizabeth, his wife – ‘Lady Butler’ – was a celebrated painter, especially of battle scenes.