BUTLER, SIR WILLIAM FRANCIS Brit ish soldier, entered the army as an ensign in 1858, becoming cap tain in 1872 and major in 1874. He took part with distinction in the Red river expedition (187o-71) and the Ashanti operations of under Wolseley, and received the C.B. in 1874. He served with the same general in the Zulu War (brevet lieutenant colonel), the campaign of Tel-el-Kebir, after which he was made an aide-de-camp to the queen, and the Sudan 1884-85, being employed as colonel on the staff 1885, and brigadier-general 1885-86. In the latter year he was made a K.C.B. He was colonel on the staff in Egypt, Feb. 1890 to Dec. 1892, and brigadier general till Nov. 1893, then appointed to Aldershot as major general. Later he commanded the south-eastern district. In 1898 he succeeded General Goodenough as commander-in-chief in South Africa, with the local rank of lieutenant-general. For a short period (Dec. 1898–Feb. 1899), during the absence of Sir Alfred Milner in England, he acted as high commissioner, and as such and subsequently in his military capacity he expressed views on the subject of the probabilities of war which were not approved by the home government ; he was consequently ordered home to command the western district, and held this post until 1905. He was promoted lieutenant-general in 1900. He had long been known as a descriptive writer, since his publication of The Great Lone Land (1872) and other works, and he was the biographer (1899) of Sir George Colley. Sir William Butler died at Tipper ary on June 7 191o. He married in 1877 Miss Elizabeth Thomp son, an accomplished painter of battle-scenes.
Among Lady Butler's more famous works were "The Roll Call" (1874), "Quatre Bras" (1875), "Rorke's Drift" 0880, "The Camel Corps" (1891) , and "The Dawn of Waterloo" (1895) . See her Autobiography (1923).