Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only a ...

Richard Clive Butler (12 January 1929 – 28 January 2012) was a British farmer and

merchant bank A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...

er, President of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales.

Early life

One of the sons of the Conservative politician

Rab Butler Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary ...

, by his marriage to Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld, daughter and co-heiress of Samuel Courtauld, the young Butler was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI of England, Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. i ...

and Pembroke College, Cambridge, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the

Royal Horse Guards The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues) (RHG) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, part of the Household Cavalry. Raised in August 1650 at Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham by Sir Arthur Haselrigge on the orders of Oliver C ...

.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

'', vol. 3 (2003), p. 4044 The Courtaulds owned estates in north Essex, and on completing his

National service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

Butler concerned himself with estate management."Sir Richard Butler"
in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 6 February 2012
"Butler, Sir Richard"
clementjones.com, accessed 22 December 2022

Career

Butler became a farmer in 1953 and inherited a 1500-acre arable estate in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

on the death of his mother in 1954. He was an active member of the

National Farmers' Union of England and Wales The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is a member organisation/industry association for farmers in England and Wales. It is the largest farmers' organisation in the countries, and has over 300 branch offices. History On 10 December 1908, a meetin ...

, joining its Council in 1962. In 1970, he became vice-president, and in 1971 deputy president to

Henry Plumb Charles Henry Plumb, Baron Plumb, (27 March 1925 – 15 April 2022) was a British politician and farmer who went into politics as a leader of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, National Farmers' Union. He later became active in ...

, continuing almost until the end of the 1970s. He was then President from 1979 to 1986. He was knighted by H. M. the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 10 November 1981. ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'' is one of the official journals of record or government gazettes of the Government of the United Kingdom, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are ...

'', Issue 48819, 11 December 1981, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/48819/page/15769 p. 15769] After retiring from the NFU, for a year Butler was president of COPA-COGECA, COPA, the union of European farmers, and also took on business directorships. In the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

, he became a director of County Natwest Investment Management and served as Chairman from 1989 to 1996."Butler, Hon. Sir Richard (Clive)", in Who Was Who 2011–2015'' (2016, } Butler listed his recreations in '' Who's Who'' as “hunting, shooting, DIY” and was chairman of the East Essex Hunt for forty years.

Personal life

On 5 July 1952, Butler married Susan Anne Maud Walker, a daughter of Patrick Bruce Walker and Sybil Middleton Turner. They had a daughter, Antonia Mary (1954) and twin sons, Richard Michael and Christopher Patrick (1956).

Honours

High Sheriff of Essex The High Sheriff of Essex was an ancient sheriff title originating in the time of the Angles, not long after the invasion of the Kingdom of England, which was in existence for around a thousand years. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the ...

, 1969 * Deputy Lieutenant of Essex, 1972 *

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are t ...

, 1981

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Richard Clive 1929 births 2012 deaths Deputy Lieutenants of Essex High Sheriffs of Essex People educated at Eton College Royal Horse Guards officers