Arthur Ronald Butler (1916 – 7 November 2003)"A. Ronald (Ron) Butler RDP Hon FRPSL 1916–2003." in ''

The London Philatelist ''The London Philatelist'' was first published in January 1892
by philatelist Philately (; ) is the study of postage stamps and postal history. It also refers to the collection and appreciation of stamps and other philatelic products. While closely associated with stamp collecting and the study of postage, it is possible ...

who was President of the

Royal Philatelic Society London The Royal Philatelic Society London (RPSL) is the oldest philately, philatelic society in the world. It was founded on 10 April 1869 as ''The Philatelic Society, London''. The society runs a postal museum, the Spear Museum of Philatelic History ...

from 1978 to 1980. He was a specialist in the stamps of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and in 1978 was awarded the

Crawford Medal :::''See also'' Crawford Award for fantasy novels. :::''See also'' Max Crawford Medal Australian academic award. The Crawford Medal is a vermeil medal awarded by the Royal Philatelic Society London for the most valuable and original contribution t ...

for his work ''The departmental stamps of South Australia''.''The Society's medals and honorary fellowship''. The Royal Philatelic Society London, 2009, p. 4. In 1975, at Leicester, Butler signed the

Roll of Distinguished Philatelists The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP) is a Philately, philatelic award of international scale, created by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain in 1921 to honour those who have advanced philately through research, expertise, or service. ...

Outside philately

Butler was an engineer by profession, first working for the toy manufacturers Lotts Bricks. During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force, and afterwards joined the Royal Aeronautical Establishment at Farnborough. At this time he was involved in investigating crashes of the

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

aircraft. In 1968 Butler worked for the

Decimal Currency Board The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (''decimal fractions'') of the ...

where he was involved in designing the shape of the British 50p piece.

Selected publications

*''The departmental stamps of South Australia.'' London: Royal Philatelic Society, 1978. *''The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists''. The British Philatelic Federation Limited, 1990. (Addenda 1994 and 1999)

References

British philatelists Presidents of the Royal Philatelic Society London 2003 deaths Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society English aerospace engineers 1916 births Signatories to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists {{UK-philatelist-stub