Harcourt Butler

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Sir Harcourt Butler

| office = Governor of Burma

| honorific-prefix =

| honorific-suffix = GCSI, GCIE, KStJ

| image = Harcourt Butler (cropped).jpg

| monarch =

| predecessor = Office established

| successor = Charles Alexander Innes

| monarch2 =

| office2 = Lieutenant Governor of Burma

| predecessor2 = Reginald Craddock

| successor2 = Office dissolved

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1869|08|01}}

| birth_place = Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England

| death_date = {{death date and age|1938|03|02|1869|08|01|df=y}}

| death_place = Camden, London, England

| nationality = British

| spouse = Amelia Katherine Florence Wright

| relations = Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler
Harry Nelson Wright (brother-in-law)

| children = Victor Spencer Butler

| alma_mater = Harrow School, Balliol College, Oxford

| occupation = Administrator

| religion =

| term_start = 2 January 1923

| term_end = 20 December 1927

| term_start2 = 21 December 1922

| term_end2 = 2 January 1923

| office3 = Lieutenant Governor of Burma

| term_start3 = 28 October 1915

| term_end3 = 22 September 1917

| monarch3 =

| predecessor3 = George Shaw

| successor3 = Walter Francis Rice

}}

Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler {{postnominals|country=GBR|sep=,|GCSI|GCIE|DL|FRGS|FRSA|FRAS|FZS}} (1 August 1869 – 2 March 1938) was an officer of the Indian Civil Service who was the leading British official in Burma for much of his career, serving as Lieutenant-Governor (1915–17 and 1922–23) and later Governor of Burma (1923–27).

He also served as Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1918 to 1921 and later was the first governor of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1921 to 1922.{{cite book |title=The India Office List |date=1927 |publisher=Secretary of State for India in Council |page=530 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.533008/page/n555}}

Life and career

Butler was born on 1 August 1869 in Middlesex, England and died on 2 March 1938 in London, at age 68. He was the brother of Montagu Sherard Dawes Butler and Geoffrey G. Butler.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford, Butler entered the Indian Civil Services soon afterwards, in 1890. He served as governor of United Provinces from 3 January 1921 to 21 December 1922, and was followed by Sir William Sinclair Marris. Butler later went on to serve as Governor of Burma from 2 January 1923 to 20 December 1927; he had already been lieutenant-governor of Burma from 28 October 1915 to 22 September 1917, and held the title briefly again from 21 December 1922 to 2 January 1923. On that date, the position became that of "Governor".

The Government of India in 1910 had appointed Butler as the first Member for Education with a seat on the Viceroy's Executive Council.{{cite book |last=Riddick |first=John F. |title=The History of British India: A Chronology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Es6x4u_g19UC&pg=PA166 |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-32280-8|page=166}} He was also the first president of Delhi Gymkhana, founded in 1913.{{cite news |title=A fine balance of luxury and care|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/chunk-ht-ui-newdelhi100years-topstories/A-fine-balance-of-luxury-and-care/Article1-723880.aspx |work=Hindustan Times|date=21 July 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127160500/http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/chunk-ht-ui-newdelhi100years-topstories/A-fine-balance-of-luxury-and-care/Article1-723880.aspx |archivedate=27 November 2011 |url-status=dead}}

Butler was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India (CSI) in 1909, knighted as a Knight Commander (KCSI) of the same order in 1911, and promoted to Knight Grand Commander (GCSI) of the order in 1928. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in November 1901,{{London Gazette |issue=27374 |date=9 November 1901 |page=7288 |supp=y}} and was promoted to a Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) of the same order in 1923.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

The Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur established in 1921 was re-named after him in 1926.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Also, the Harcourt Butler Higher Secondary School (now known as Harcourt Butler Sr. Sec. School), New Delhi was also named after him in 1917. It was earlier called the Bengali Boys School.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Butler helped the opening of the University of Medicine 1, Yangon, on 2 February 1927. From 1927 to 1929 he chaired the Butler Committee on the governance of the British Raj in relation to the princely states.{{cite ODNB|id=32218|first=Francis|last=Robinson|title=Butler, Sir (Spencer) Harcourt}}

Family

Butler married Florence Katherine Wright{{Cite web|url=http://www.airgale.com.au/wright-w/d3.htm#c99832|title = The Descendants of William Wright, circa 1830, probably from Windsor in Berkshire}} in London in 1894. They had one son, Victor Spencer, born in 1900.{{cite book |date=2006 |last=Gilmour |first=David |title=The Ruling Caste |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |page=281 }}

References

Links

{{cite web|url=http://upgovernor.gov.in/harcourtbio.htm |title=About Harcourt Butler |accessdate=29 March 2016 |work=National Informatics Centre, Uttar Pradesh State Unit |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206015604/http://upgovernor.gov.in/harcourtbio.htm |archivedate=6 February 2012 }}
[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Myanmar.htm Myanmar (Burma)], worldstatesmen.org. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.79454/page/n8 Speeches 1921]

{{succession box|title=Lieutenant Governor of British Crown Colony of Burma|years=1915–1917|before=Sir George Shaw

|after=Walter Francis Rice}}

{{succession box|title=Lieutenant Governor of British Crown Colony of Burma|years=1922–1923|before=Sir Reginald Henry Craddock

|after=last incumbent}}

{{succession box|title=Governor of British Crown Colony of Burma|years=1923–1927|before=first incumbent

|after=Sir Charles Alexander Innes}}

Category:1869 births

Category:1938 deaths

Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India

Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire

Category:Knights of the Order of St John

Category:Administrators in British Burma