The General who almost prevented the Boer War - General Sir William Butler

the Anglo boore war in South Africa between 1899 and 1902 was the most costly conflict fought by Queen Victoria's British Army 20,000 British and 14,000 bu troops along with 26,000 bu civilians and an estimated 20,000 black Africans lost their lives and the scars of that conflict still shape attitudes in South Africa to this day but do you know that for a tantalizing moment one man might have averted this terrible bloodshed General s William Butler was an enigmatic member of s Garnet walley's ashanty ring of officers in the British army during the late 19th century married to one of the most famous artists of the day he served in walley's Red River campaign in Canada the Ashanti war in West Africa the Zulu War walley's Egyptian campaign and the Nile expedition to save General Charles Gordon in carum an organizer who fell in love with the remote Wilds of Canada and was instrumental in the formation of the northwest Mounted Police Butler was also an accomplished writer and historian so a thinking General in the Victorian British Army and yet despite being part of Queen Victoria's Army as it painted large parts of the globe British red he was also a passionate supporter of Irish home rule and of BU Independence in South Africa and indeed there was a brief moment where he came tantalizingly close to preventing the second Anglo bore war and how history might have been different if he'd done so a man described as that brilliant but impossible Irishman this is the story that I've previously told to my members of General Sir William Butler William Butler was born into a minor Catholic Gentry family in County tieri Ireland in 1838 during his youth he was to witness firsthand the desolation of the Potato Famine in rural Ireland what little money his father did have he spent on trying to help oliv the suffering those memories were to stay with William Butler for the rest of his life and often led to him championing the underdog as we'll discover later following an education at a Jesuit college in 1858 he began his 47-year career in the British army Butler was commissioned as an IGN the most Junior officer rank at the time with the 69th Regiment of foot they would go on to become the second Battalion the Welsh regiment in 1881 almost immediately he was headed abroad as the 69th were ordered to fight in the second Anglo Burmese War there he briefly met another young officer who would be injured by musket ball Garnet Walley their careers would be intertwined for the rest of his military life following the war the 69th were posted to Madras in India there young Butler chaffed against the monotony of Garrison duties and he began writing to break the boredom it was the start of a hobby that would see him write highly regarded books books about 19th century Canada as well as biographies of General Charles Gordon George kohley and Sir Charles napia finally his regiment's Tour of Duty ended and they were sent back to Britain on route home Butler managed to stop off at St helina this tiny island in the Mid-Atlantic between Africa and Brazil had been the final Exile of Napoleon bonapart butel had a lifelong Fascination and admiration for all things Napoleon he treed up the slope of the volcanic island to Longwood house where the exiled French Emperor had died in 1821 St Elina remains a British overseas territory to this day a tiny vestage of an Empire that once with the help of men like Butler controlled a quarter of the globe arriving back in Britain in 1867 his regiment were posted to the Channel Islands and there he met the French author Victor Hugo they were to remain lifelong friends his stay in the Channel Islands was cut short after a year when the 69th was sent to Canada to counter the phenian raids from America those raids by Irish Republicans most of whom had served in the Union Army during the American Civil War are something I might cover in a future episode what do you think drop me a comment below with yes or no with little money or influence in an age where promotions in the British army were still purchased butzler had little reason to rush home to Britain thus he stayed on in Canada exploring the Western Wilderness in October 1870 he embarked Upon A 5mon 2,700 m round trip from Quebec to the Rockies he fell in love with the beauty of the Untamed Canadian wilderness and the native people he met on Route he recorded his travels in a book published in 1872 entitled The Great lone land it was to be reprinted 17 times before his death and fans of the book included Theodore Roosevelt Winston Churchill and John Ruskin in the meantime in 1870 he volunteered to serve in Garnet walley's Red River expedition to deal with a rebellion led by Lou Riel in modernday Winnipeg Walley had already filled his staff but remembering Butler from Burma and impressed by his knowledge of the Canadian wilderness he gave him a special mission to travel via the USA to riel's headquarters and gather intelligence his arrival at the remote center of the Rebellion Fort Gary could hardly have been kept undercover butela must have stuck out like a sore thumb he was actually invited to meet Riel and agreed to convey his demands to Walley the British officer then left Fort Gary by canoe and paddled his way to the advancing British Expedition walley's rapid Advance unnerved the rebels Riel fled to the USA and the Rebellion fizzled out with almost no Bloodshed with the Red River expedition complete Butler once more chose to stay on in Canada in 187 72 he was finally promoted to the rank of Captain having served 12 years as a leftenant with the publicity surrounding the great lonel land he was also made a fellow of the royal Geographic Society the following year he embarked on yet another epic journey through the Canadian wilderness this time traveling by foot horse canoe and dog sled all the way to the Pacific coast it resulted in yet another book The Wild Northland based upon his journey he had advocated the formation of the Northwest Mounted Police his travels also made him highly sympathetic to the Native Americans and the way that their lifestyle was being eroded by European influence this sympathy found a voice in Butler's novel redcloud The solitary Sue published in 1882 it was the first but not the last time he would Advocate the cause of the underdog as Britain expanded her Empire his exploits during the Red River expedition had impressed Walley so much that he sent Butler a message to join him on his next Expedition the Ashanti war in West Africa Butler raced across the Atlantic to Britain only to find that Walley had already departed for modern day Ghana nevertheless he caught the next ship available and landed just a few days after Walley once in West Africa he was given the task of raising a local Regiment of Africans to support the invasion of the Ashanti Kingdom he became one of W's fabled a shanty ring of officers who would play key roles in many of the military conflicts during the latter part of the 19th century as it was Butler's scratch Regiment of locals proved unreliable when facing the Fearsome Asanti and Butler himself succumbed to a tropical fever this resulted in him being sent home to netti hospital for two months netti hospital was a massive Military Hospital on the shores of the solent in Hampshire built during the Crimean War the story of the hospital is another one that I will tell you in the future now very much part of walley's gang he joined his mentor in South Africa where Walley had been appointed governor of the natal Colony here buta with his champion of the underdog was given the task of protecting the welfare of Indian migrants principally working in the colony sugar plantations in 1877 Butler married Elizabeth Thompson now that name might not mean a lot to you but her married name lady Elizabeth Butler might and if you're still struggling then you might recognize some of her paintings she became one of the foremost military artists in the 19th century and her paintings are on display in such prestigious locations as the Tate Staff College at University College Dublin the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and the Royal collection her Works include one of the most famous paintings of the defense of rock drift plus several depicting battles from the crime Ian War then there is the work entitled remnants of an army showing the foror figure of Dr William Briden approaching G alabad following the massacre of the British army at gandam mag in Afghanistan possibly her most famous is the iconic Scotland forever depicting the charge of the Scots graay at watero in 1882 General Walley was placed in command of an expeditionary Force heading to Egypt to quell the Arabi paser Rebellion once more Walley G GED his a shanty ring of officers to act a bit like his own personal general staff and naturally William Butler now a colonel was amongst them he was present at the battles of cassin and its famous Moonlight cavalry charge and the climax of The Campaign at the Battle of Tel Kabir he'd only just returned to Britain to take up the prestigious post of a de comp sort of a military secretary to Queen Victoria herself when he was once more called back to Egypt by Walley this time saret was leading an expedition to rescue General Charles Gordon who is besieged by forces loyal to the Mii in carum Sudan I've covered this whole campaign in several previous talks so please forgive me for not going into loads of details here but I will post some links in the description below based upon his experiences during the Red River expedition wolsley decided that he would transport his whole Army up the River Nile in boats the British army had never attempted such an undertaking on such a scale before the Royal Navy who believed themselves to be experts in anything that floated informed Walley that he would need 400 boats for the task quite frankly they continued Gathering that many vessels would take at least 3 months that wasn't the answer Walley wanted to hear if the Royal Navy couldn't gather 400 boats fast he would give the job to someone who could he turned to Butler it says a lot about his estimation of the Irishman that w ly entrusted this critical part of the campaign to him put simply if he couldn't transport his army by boat there would be no way he could March his army all the way to carum in time to save gordon he had chosen well Butler gathered the 400 boats and he did it not in three months as estimated by the Royal Navy but in just one month now that's an impressive achievement in the end despite Butler's herculan efforts to secure the River Transport walley's Expedition failed to reach Gordon in time wolsley decided that the best boatmen who could navigate the various Rapids on the Nile were the Canadian boatsmen or voyagers that he'd used back on the Red River expedition the delay in Waiting For Those voyagers to arrive all the way from Canada probably cost Gordon his life interestingly some people have speculated that Walley wasn't the only person in the Ashanti ring Who Loved all things Canadian there was another William Butler was it Butler who gave Walley the idea of bringing The Boatman halfway around the world and thus delaying the Expedition maybe one thing I will say in Butler's defense was that Walley had a habit of blaming anybody except himself when things went wrong on this particular Expedition he blamed bullah for the slow Gathering of camels for the flying column and was very vocal in blaming Brigadier Wilson for reaching carom too late if he could have shifted some blame away from himself on to Butler his form suggests that probably would have but on the Boatman Walley was silent so maybe it was his idea all along Butler returned to Britain and a series of desk jobs during this period he started to get the reputation in some quarters as a bit of a rebel his constant criticisms of the conditions for ordinary soldiers irked many in the Victorian establishment but it was his political fores that really set alarm bells ringing BSA who was already a friend of Irish nationalists Charles Stewart Parnell now wrote to the government advocating Irish home rule for a serving officer to express these sentiments was both highly risky and highly inflammatory it was probably only the protection offered by Walley who in 1894 became commander-in-chief of the British army which saved his career based upon his slightly anti-imperial stance his next senior appointment was a bit of a surprise in 1898 he was appointed as commander-in-chief in South Africa if there was a volatile region in the British Empire in 1898 well apart from the Northwest Frontier in India and demands for Irish home rule it was the situation between the British and the Bor republics at the southern tip of Africa relations between the two white communities had always been feisty back in the 1830s the buers had simply packed their wagons and headed into the interior to get away from British rule in the cape there they set up their own republics free from British interference not that the local black African populations always welcomed their arrival various British imperialists had always had designs to create some sort of South African Confederation as part of the British Empire sort of on the lines of Canada naturally the newly independent bus weren't keen on that idea however in the late 1870s they had for a variety of reasons accepted British rule just prior to the bus surrendering their independence Butler who was serving Walley in theal was sent to the Bor Republic of the orange free state to assess whether they would acques to joining the Empire or would have to be forced to do so Butler came away with a healthy respect for the bus both their aspirations their knowledge of the land and their fighting abilities and it would influence his latter actions within a few years the bus realized that the grass wasn't greener on the other side and Rose in Revolt they defeated the British under another ashany ring member General George kohy at the Battle of majuba indeed kohy was killed in action it was left to another member of the Ring serevin wood to negotiate a treaty granting the boers their independence once more so by 1898 British imperialists like CLE rhods and the British High Commissioner Lord Milner felt there was unfinished business with the buor republics this wasn't helped by the fact that in the ensuing years gold had been discovered in one of the republics the transval officially known as the South African Republic European immigrants called Eight lunders had flocked to the goldfields near Johannesburg the buers under their president Paul Krueger feared that they would soon become a minority in their own country they refused these immigrants the vote or anyay in the running of the country combined with Selective punitive taxes and high-handed attitudes from some officials towards them notably the police discontent amongst these immigrants started to grow the majority of these Outlanders and indeed the mine owners were British and now they looked to the British government for support people like cesil rhs and Lord Milner saw an opportunity to use the eight lunder discontent to justify an armed Intervention which would bring the republics back into the empire in fact just after Christmas in 1895 cesil rhs had sent his own private police force into the transval supposedly the request of the eight lunders to overthrow Krueger's government this Jameson raid ended in abject failure but had raised tension to even higher levels just two years later Butler arrived as commander-in-chief of the British Army in South Africa he was a gust at the situation he found on the ground firstly the High Commissioner Lord Milner seemed intent to find a cause to go to war with the bus secondly from his military Vantage Point Butler was appalled at the minuscule Army at his disposal if Milner provoked a war he wasn't sure his forces could defend the British colonies let alone launching invasion of the bu republics Butler's sense of Injustice and support for the underdog came to the surface how could such a war by the British be justified Butler refused Milner's demands to move British forces to the borders he certainly didn't want to threaten the buers more however if by doing so the British provoked the bus then his forces Up On the Border could easily be isolated by the numerically Superior enemy better to keep them back and respond to any military conflict should it arise Milner was Furious and relations between Britain's Chief political man in South Africa and her Chief military man rapidly went downhill towards the end of 1898 Butler at least gained some breathing space as Milner returned to London for 3 months as commander-in-chief Butler was appointed acting High Commissioner and it was in this new role that he received a delegation of eight londers from Johannesburg they presented him with a petition to Queen Victoria asking asking for her government to use every means at its disposal to help alleviate their misery Butler who regarded them with suspicion wondering both who controlled them and exactly how many eight lenders they spoke for refused to pass it on in December 1898 in a speech at grahamstown Butler set out his position quote Unity is strength but it should be a union of Hearts not a union forced by outside pressure to my mind South Africa needs no surgical operations it needs peace and rest unquote in other words no more Jameson raids no more saber rattling from the British he went on to say that a war between the bus and the British would be a Calamity for both and for South Africa with the benefit of hindsight many would probably agree with him Milner roads and the aggressive imperialists were incandescent Butler responded by sending a cable to the Colonial secretary in London Joseph Chamberlain warning him that the Hawks were dragging Britain into a war for which she wasn't prepared furthermore he warned that the bus would be far more implacable foes than Milner and Co believed history was to prove him right on both these counts too however General s Willian Butler was sailing against the prevailing wind the Press dubbed him a Kruger right and more and more highly placed people were having a word in the ear of his boss Walley with pressure mounting on him and frustrated both at the lack of preparedness and the seeming determination to have a war despite their lack of preparation Butler resigned Milner and the imperialists were triumphant and by October 1899 less than a year after Butler's speech in grahamstown they had their War just as Butler had predicted the bus were far harder to beat than the jingoistic imperialists had imagined the British troops had been mooved to the Border were surrounded at mafer King Kimberly and Lady Smith just as he had also predicted it would take a British Army of half a million men to defeat a boore army less than 1/5 of that size and cost the British taxpayers £200 million 20 billion pound in today's money the war would last for three years and cost the lives of 20,000 British soldiers and 14,000 bu Fighters it would also result in the deaths of 26,000 bu C ions held in British internment or concentration camps and let's not forget that this white man's War also cost the lives of around 20,000 black Africans too the memories of that war not least the concentration camps shaped South African politics through the 20th century and still shape many africanas views of the British to this day but despite being proved correct about the buers butler's best days were past him and he finally retired from the Army shortly after the war had concluded in 1905 he moved back to his native Island he lived out the rest of his days in bansha Castle where he continued his passions for writing history and education sitting on the Senate of the National University of Ireland he also continued to take a keen interest in the political future of Ireland counting the leading nationalist John Redmond as a friend General s William Butler died in June 1910 and was buried with full military honors in County tieri he was survived by Lady Butler who passed away in 1933 one of his sons Patrick Butler was awarded the DSO while serving with the Royal Welsh fusers during the first world war he was to become a leftenant colonel with that regiment another son Richard would become a Catholic priest and serve as a Chaplain in the British army during World War I and as an RAF chaplain during World War II compared to some of wal's shanty Rings such as bullah and SE lwood buta was a thinking soldier in his autobiography he pointedly wrote when I look back over 47 years of service the thing that astonishes me is the entire absence of the thinking faculty in nine out of 10 of the highest grade officers with whom I Associated many when considering some of the senior commanders in both the bua and the first world wars might agree but he wasn't just a thinker his flare for organization was exhibited when he gathered those 400 boats in a month for walley's Nile Expedition and yet as a thinker and a man who supported the underdog he was in a tantalizing position to have averted the bore War had the prevailing imperialist mood not been against him and how history might have been very different if his rather than Milner's and cesil rhs's Views had been listened to if this as wet as your appetite to find out more about the Anglo bore war or the rest of General Sagan at wal's ashany ring then please do watch my videos there's links appearing well about now thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also support my channel by becoming a patron or joining my members extra Channel details are in the description box below thanks for your support keep well and I'll see you again very soon

Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: british history, the history chap, history of england, military history, british military history, british empire, general sir william butler, wolseley ring, the wolseley ring, the ashanti ring, lady elizabeth butler, lady elizabeth thompson, british army, boer war, anglo boer war, general sir garnet wolseley, sir garnet wolseley, the great lone land, red river expedition, cecil rhodes, secong anglo boer war

Id: -vr_DvOLNnA

Length: 23min 17sec (1397 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2024