Minister of Education (President of the Board, 1941–1944)
In office 20 July 1941 – 25 May 1945
Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
Preceded by
Herwald Ramsbotham
Succeeded by
Richard Law
Shadow offices
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office 16 October 1964 – 27 July 1965
Leader
Alec Douglas-Home
Shadowing
Patrick Gordon Walker
Michael Stewart
Preceded by
Patrick Gordon-Walker
Succeeded by
Reginald Maudling
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 10 December 1950 – 28 October 1951
Leader
Winston Churchill
Shadowing
Hugh Gaitskell
Preceded by
Oliver Stanley
Succeeded by
Hugh Gaitskell
Parliamentary offices
Member of Parliament for Saffron Walden
In office 30 May 1929 – 19 February 1965
Preceded by
William Mitchell
Succeeded by
Peter Kirk
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Life peerage 19 February 1965 – 8 March 1982
Personal details
Born
Richard Austen Butler
(1902-12-09)9 December 1902 Attock Serai, British India (now Attock, Pakistan)
Died
8 March 1982(1982-03-08) (aged 79) Great Yeldham, Essex, England
Resting place
St Mary the Virgin, Saffron Walden
Nationality
British
Political party
Conservative
Spouses
Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld
(m. 1926; died 1954)
Mollie Courtauld
(m. 1959)
Children
4, including Adam (by Sydney Courtauld)
Parent
Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler (father)
Academic background
Alma mater
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Academic work
Institutions
Pembroke College, Cambridge
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Main interests
Languages
History
International law
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, KG, CH, PC, DL (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; he was effectively Deputy Prime Minister to Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan, although he only held the official title for a brief period in 1962–63. He was one of his party's leaders in promoting the post-war consensus through which the major parties largely agreed on the main points of domestic policy until the 1970s; it is sometimes known as "Butskellism" from a fusion of his name with that of his Labour counterpart, Hugh Gaitskell.
Born into a family of academics and Indian administrators, Butler had a distinguished academic career before he entered Parliament in 1929. As a junior minister, he helped to pass the Government of India Act 1935. He strongly supported the appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1938 to 1939.
Entering the Cabinet in 1941, he served as President of the Board of Education (1941–1945) and oversaw the Education Act 1944. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1951, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1951–1955), Home Secretary (1957–1962), First Secretary of State (1962–1963) and Foreign Secretary (1963–1964). Butler had an exceptionally long ministerial career and was one of only two British politicians (the other being John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon) to have served in three of the four Great Offices of State but never to have been Prime Minister for which he was passed over in 1957 and 1963. At the time, the Conservative leadership was decided by a process of private consultation, rather than by a formal vote.
After retiring from politics in 1965, Butler was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Howard, Anthony (1987). RAB: The Life of R. A. Butler. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-01862-3. Jago, Michael (2015). RabButler: The Best Prime Minister...
"swordsman" and would later display open contempt for other politicians (e.g. RabButler, Hugh Gaitskell, Harold Wilson) who, often through no fault of their own...
Look up rab or Rab in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Rab may refer to: Rab (island), an island in Croatia Rab (town), on the island of RabRáb, the Slovak...
War, but it was re-established on a wider basis with a larger staff by RabButler, who would be its chairman from 1945 until 1965 Its post-war role included...
brother Tim had to sell Windlestone in 1936. Referring to his parentage, RabButler would later quip that Anthony Eden — a handsome but ill-tempered man —...
similarity in his outlook to that of his Conservative Party counterpart RabButler was dubbed "Butskellism", initially a satirical term blending their names...
his role as Judge Buller in the BBC drama Garrow's Law. He appeared as RabButler in the first two seasons of The Crown, in The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep...
to Macmillan in 1963 (he claimed to have supported Macmillan's deputy RabButler, although it is unclear exactly what his recommendation had been). He...
C. J. C. & Toomer, Air Vice-Marshal S. E. (2004) [1st. pub. HMSO 1954]. Butler, J. R. M. (ed.). The Mediterranean and Middle East: The Early Successes...
Norton 2020, p. 142. Thornton, Stephen; Kirkup, Jonathan (2023). "From Rab to Raab: The Construction of the Office of First Secretary of State". Parliamentary...
sons and two daughters: Richard Austen "Rab" Butler (1902–1982), the Conservative statesman Iris Mary Butler (1905–2002), a journalist and historian,...
235-255. Howard, Anthony. RAB: The Life of R.A. Butler (2013) ch 10. (originally published 1987) Jago, Michael. RabButler: The Best Prime Minister We...
subject, utterly and entirely negative and devoid of constructive thought." RabButler, who as Under-Secretary for India helped pilot the Act through the House...
theoretical. The Education Act 1944 (also known as the Butler Education Act after its creator, RabButler), which applied only to England and Wales, promised...
his political career he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to RabButler at the Foreign Office from 1938 in the Chamberlain administration and...
Layton Butler (1885–1966), Australian politician, Premier of South Australia Richard A. Butler (Irish politician), Irish independent senator RabButler (Richard...
Sandys and Peake were all educated at Eton College. He initially retained RabButler, with whom he did not get along, as Chancellor of the Exchequer. At the...
Party) and worked for the Conservative Research Department (CRD) under RabButler, where his colleagues included Iain Macleod and Reginald Maudling. Powell's...
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