Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Colonel (Dr) Arthur Graham BUTLER DSO, BA, BC Australian Army Medical Corps

Arthur Butler, who appears to have preferred to be called Graham, was born at Kilcoy Station to William and Jean Butler on 25th February 1872. He was probably educated privately or locally before attending Ipswich Grammar as a boarder. Upon matriculation from Ipswich, Graham took up studies at St John’s College, Cambridge where he gained a BA and degrees in medicine.

Graham returned to Kilcoy where he worked in general practice before moving to Gladstone and then post graduate study in Sydney, where he married. He and wife Lillian moved back to Brisbane where Graham established a practice in obstetrics and gynaecology on Wickham Terrace. In 1912, Graham joined the Moreton Regiment (9th Battalion) as medical officer with the rank of captain.

At the outbreak of the war, Graham applied for a commission in the AIF on 20th August 1914. He was accepted and commissioned in his existing rank of captain as medical officer attached to the headquarters of the 9th Infantry Battalion AIF. Graham was 42 years old and he named his wife Lillian of Wickham Terrace as his next of kin.

Just over a month after enlisting, Graham and the other 950 odd members of the 9th Battalion, 3rd Brigade of 1st Division AIF boarded the “Omrah” in Brisbane. The embarkation roll shows Graham listed as Captain and medical officer with a daily pay of nineteen shillings, of which he had allocated sixteen shillings and sixpence to his wife. The “Omrah” sailed for Melbourne where other brigades were being assembled. Sailing for the conflict in Europe was delayed due to concerns about the whereabouts of a German cruiser squadron which had sailed from the port of Qingdao in China when war broke out. The 9th Battalion were off loaded and commenced training exercises with the other three battalions in the 3rd Brigade at Broadmeadows. On 20th October the men re-embarked on the “Omrah” and sailed to Albany Sound where the fleet of troop transports was being assembled. Graham treated his first case of measles at Albany.

The ships left Albany on 1st November 1914. On 16th November, Graham was required to treat a number of prisoners who were survivors of the German Cruiser “Emden”. The “Omrah” finally docked at Alexandria in Egypt on 4th December, by which time there were almost 40 cases of measles. The AIF were trained to Mena, an outer suburb of Cairo, where they would spend the next four months. Graham was kept busy treating infectious diseases as well as having to declare a number of men as medically unfit.

The Australian Army Medical Service had established a hospital in the former Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo and Graham’s younger sister, Ethel, was posted there as a staff nurse. No doubt Graham and Ethel were able to meet up and exchange news.

When the decision was made to use the AIF troops as part of the Dardenelles campaign, the commander of the ANZAC Forces, General Birdwood, selected the 3rd Brigade of the AIF as the initial landing force for the 25th April. The 9th Battalion would land at the extreme right and be exposed to Turkish fire on their open flank. When the boats landed at 4:20 am on the 25th, Graham Butler was one of the first men ashore. He followed the companies of 9th Battalion men as they scrambled up the steep scrub covered slopes and established an aid post beyond the first ridge to treat the wounded, and began organising an effective system of evacuating the wounded back to the beach. For his gallantry and devotion to duty, Captain A. Graham Butler was recommended to be awarded the Distinguished Service Order, the only medical officer to be awarded a DSO through the whole Gallipoli campaign.

The conditions on Gallipoli were trying and Graham was not a young man. Diseases such as dysentery and typhoid were causing almost as many casualties as the Turks. On 4th July, Graham succumbed to illness, which was originally diagnosed as influenza but was later amended to gastritis. He was evacuated to the hospital ship “Somali” and transported to Malta where he was admitted to the small private hospital run by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary ( often referred to as the Blue Sisters on account of the colour of their habits) on 31st July. Graham’s wife cabled Base Records in Melbourne advising that she had been notified privately (perhaps by Sister Ethel Butler) that her husband was in hospital in Malta and requesting further news. Lillian received a cabled reply confirming that Graham was “seriously ill” and an offer to send him a cable free of charge on his wife’s behalf.

By the 19th August 1915, Graham was back with his unit at Gallipoli. His wife was advised of his recovery and the cessation of free telegrams. In the beginning of October, while still performing the duties of a Battalion Medical Officer, Graham was promoted to the rank of Major. When he arrived back in Egypt in January 1916 from Gallipoli, Graham was transferred to Anzac Headquarters where he was engaged in administrative duties. During the first months of 1916, the AIF went through an expansion in which the number of divisions were increased from two to five. Once the reorganisation was complete, the divisions in Egypt were sent to the “real” war; the Western Front. Graham arrived in Marseilles in April of 1916 and continued to do staff work for the remainder of the year. On 13th November of that year, Graham was Mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig’s despatches in recognition of his devotion to duty and organisational skills. On 20th November, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

In March 1917, the Germans began a tactical withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line and Australian forces cautiously followed. Graham had recently been given command of the 3rd Field Ambulance and as the Australians moved east, the Field Ambulance units followed. Graham was Mentioned in Despatches a second time for his command of the 3rd FA at Bapaume and Bullecourt.

Bullecourt heralded the end of the Somme campaign that had begun in July the previous year. Focus as far as the British and Dominion Forces were concerned shifted north to the fields of Belgian Flanders. The Flanders campaign, commonly referred to as 3rd Ypres or Passchendaele began with the Battle of Messines in June 1917. As the advance moved on to the Menin Road in September, Graham was Mentioned in Despatches for a third time in recognition of his work in organising the evacuation of the wounded from the front areas to the Casualty Clearing Stations around Poperinghe.

As the Flanders campaign ground to a halt in a sea of mud that became its defining feature, Graham was detached to England where after a few weeks of furlough, he began work in the Australian War Records Office in early 1918.

When the First World War began, the Australian Government selected Charles Bean, a Sydney journalist, to accompany the AIF as an official correspondent. Bean accompanied the troops ashore at Gallipoli and then to the Western Front. By 1917, Bean had recruited two photographers, Frank Hurley and Hubert Wilkins ( both men had extensive experience in Polar and Antarctic exploration) with a view to recording for posterity the contribution of the AIF. Bean’s vision was that there should be an extensive record, both written, visual and actual. To this end, Bean persuaded the powers that be to begin collecting artefacts, photographs and film and all manner of documents. Graham Butler’s task was to begin to collect, catalogue and preserve items relating to the work of the Australian Army Medical Corps which would form an integral part of Bean’s plan.

In 1918, the tide turned on the Western Front with the British and particularly the AIF halting and then turning a German Offensive on the Somme in April and May. Lt Colonel Graham Butler was appointed commanding officer of the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville on the Somme Canal in July 1918. The 3rd AGH would be the main receiving hospital for casualties that would be transported west from the front line at Amiens, Villers Bretonneux, Mont St Quentin and Peronne.

By September Graham was back in England where he was granted an extended furlough to return to Australia. Such furloughs were a policy of the Australian Government granted to “1914” men who had been overseas for almost four years. At the time, it was thought that the war would extend into 1919 and perhaps even 1920. Graham departed on 3rd October 1918 with the war still ongoing. His ship took him to San Francisco where he took another ship across the Pacific to Melbourne where his wife was living temporarily. While on furlough, the war ended and Graham was promoted to full colonel the same day. In spite of the fact that the armistice had taken effect, there were still important tasks for Graham in Europe and on 23rd December 1918 he embarked on the “Wyreema” in Adelaide and landed in Southampton at the end of February 1919.

In March 1919, Graham was sent back to the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Abbeville as officer commanding where he remained until the hospital was closed in June. Graham reported to the War Records Office in Horseferry Road, London to resume work on collation of medical records.

Since Graham had already enjoyed a furlough back home, he was no longer a priority for transport home to Australia. While waiting for a berth of a suitable standard, he took up the opportunity of Non Military Employment (NME) at Ashwood Mansions, a medical facility where he could brush up on his general practice skills. For the three months he was there he continued to draw his military stipend of two pound and five shillings a day.

On 1st October 1919, Graham boarded the “Oriveto” for the voyage home, disembarking in Melbourne. He travelled by train to Brisbane where he was formally discharged and paid his deferred salary allotment. Graham returned to private practice in Brisbane.

In 1923, Graham was persuaded “against his wish but with a sense of public duty” to write the History of the Australian Medical Corp 1914-1919. This history, which was published in three volumes from 1930 to 1943 was written by Graham in Canberra where he was also appointed medical officer at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

An official portrait of Graham in full colonel’s uniform was painted by the war artist Will Longstaff. This portrait hangs in the Australian War Memorial. Graham Butler had achieved distinction in both the fields of medicine and military history. He died in February 1949 and was buried in the grounds of St John’s Anglican Church, Canberra aged 76.