Sir 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 comm ...

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 (UK), Conservative Party politici ...

, 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 providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Pembroke College, Cambridge Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 students and fellows. It is one of the university's larger colleges, with buildings from ...

, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the

Royal Horse Guards The Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, also known as the Blues, or abbreviated as RHG, was one of the cavalry regiments of the British Army and part of the Household Cavalry. In 1969, it was amalgamated with the 1st The Royal Dragoons to form the ...

.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher, considered an authority on the order of precedence of noble families and information on the lesser nobility of the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1826, when the Anglo-Irish genea ...

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

National service National service is a system of compulsory or 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 ...

, 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 British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', 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 Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

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 an employer association representing farming and growing businesses within England and Wales. The NFU originated as the Lincolnshire Farmers' Union (LFU) which was founded in 1904. Over the next four year ...

, joining its council in 1962. In 1970, he became vice-president, and in 1971 deputy president to Henry Plumb, continuing almost until the end of the 1970s. He was then president from 1979 to 1986. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

by H. M. the Queen at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

on 10 November 1981. ''

The London Gazette ''The London Gazette'', known generally as ''The 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, i ...

'', 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, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, 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 A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

'' 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 th ...

, 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 Order of chivalry, orders of chivalry; it is a part of the Orders, decorations, and medals ...

, 1981

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Richard Clive 1929 births 2012 deaths Presidents of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales Deputy lieutenants of Essex High sheriffs of Essex People educated at Eton College Royal Horse Guards officers Sons of life peers