Orders, Decorations and Medals

An O.B.E. group of seven attributed to Captain Frederick Karl Butler, Nigeria Regiment

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1939-45 Star; Africa Star; Defence and War Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf, these unnamed; Coronation 1953 (F. K. Butler, E.D. Nigeria) privately engraved; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Nigeria, unnamed, mounted court style for wear, good very fine (7)
£240-280

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Long Service Medals from the Collection formed by John Tamplin.

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O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1958. ‘Director of Education, Western Region, Nigeria’.

M.I.D. London Gazette 23 June 1942.

Frederick Karl Butler was born on 28 February 1904, the only son of Sir Federick George Augustus Butler, K.C.M.G., C.B. He was educated at Elstree School, Haileybury and Trinity College, Oxford. Entering the Colonial Service, he served in Nigeria, being appointed a Superintendent of Education in the Southern Provinces in November 1927. He was appointed Senior Education Officer in May 1938. After the war, in October 1951, he became a Deputy Director of Education; in 1954, until he retired in 1958 he was Director of Education in the Western Region. As a senior official in Nigeria he was awarded the Coronation Medal 1953, this listed in the Nigeria Gazette of 12 June 1953. For his services as Director of Education he was awarded O.B.E. in the New Years Honours of 1958.

In September 1930 he was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the Nigeria Regiment European Reserve Force. With the onset of war, in September 1939, he was granted a Regular Army Emergency Commission in the British Army as a 2nd Lieutenant on the General List. He was promoted War Substantive Lieutenant in February 1941. During the war he served with the Nigeria Regiment as a Temporary Captain, serving in the campaigns in Italian Somaliland and in Abyssinia. For his services he was mentioned in despatches. Butler was awarded the Efficiency Decoration (Nigeria). Although a gazette entry has not been found, his name with post-nominal letters ‘E.D.’ is recorded in several official listings.

After his retirement in 1958 he returned to England and lived at St. Albans. He died on 9 September 1973. Sold with copied research, an original photograph and a Royal Tour of Nigeria 1956 booklet, signed by the recipient.