Ralf Lewis Giberne Butler (1883 - 1967)

Born 19 Apr 1883 in Harrow, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Died 31 Oct 1967 at age 84 in Winchester, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Ralf was born in 1883. He was the son of Spencer Butler and Mary Kendall. He grew up as the 9th child of thirteen in the family house at 55 Harrington Gardens, South Kensington, London. He went to prep. school at the Grange School in Folkestone and then was sent to his father's school Rugby before Trinity College Cambridge where he received various scholarships. On leaving Cambridge he spent one term as an Eton Master before resigning and taking up a Private Secretary position in a large London Bank. He worked in the bank for 5 years. His rooms were in Waverton Street in Mayfair. After hours he was an avid fencer and a member of the Bath Club.

He then embarked on a series of international exploits. He was Assistant Correspondent of The Times in Berlin. In 1913 Ralph returned to Cambridge as Fellow and Director of Classical Studies and remained there until August 1914 when he left to join the war effort in France. He was put in charge of the Military Police in Ypres, Belgium. The town was heavily bombed by the Germans and Ralph was wounded in the head. He was given six months leave by the Medical Board for "shell-shock" but never took it and instead signed up to the British Adriatic Mission in the Balkans, under the command of David Loch. They met the Serbian army in Albania and had many exploits as they sought to slow the southward advance of the Austrian army and the westward advance of the Bulgarian army.

Immediately after the war he was attached to Hoover's Food Commission and assisted in running famine relief to Central and South-Easter Europe. He was based in Graz and organised food trains to Vienna. He then took up the Directorship of a Bank in Zagreb. After this, and up until WWII, he spent ten years as an official in the League of Nations. He was able to speak and write: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin and had conversational Serb, Croat, Polish, Turkish and Greek.

He wrote the book Little Missions, published by Edward Arnold and Co in 1932. It was published under the pseudonym: Septimus Despencer.

In later life he lived at 90 Common Road, Chandlers Ford, Hampshire, England. At the age of 72 he had a stroke which some in the family attributed to his drinking wine and beer, rather than water, with his meals. He passed away in 1967.

Sources

• Rolling Stone (pseudonym for Ralf Butler) 2014. No Moss - privately published autobiography.
• Tanner, J.R. ed. 1917. The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge 1910.