Lieutenant John Herbert Butler

Service number	304
Ranks Held	Lieutenant, Private
Birth Date	19/01/1894
Birth Place	Australia: Tasmania, Hobart, Bellerive
Death Date	30/04/1924
Death Place	Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Final Rank	Lieutenant
Unit	2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment
Places	Bellerive Sydney
Conflict/Operation	First World War, 1914-1918

Collection items

Date of birth	19/01/1894
Date and unit at enlistment (ORs)	19/08/1914	Enlisted as a trooper in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment and served at Gallipoli.
Date of embarkation	24/09/1914
Date of recommendation honour or award	1916
Other	01/1917	Transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and trained as a pilot.
Date commissioned	06/1917	Received his commission and served in the Middle East with 1 Squadron AFC.
Date returned to Australia	28/04/1918	Returned to Australia after becoming ill.
Other	1919	Continued to fly a BE2e in a commercial capacity for the Perdriau Rubber Company. It is claimed that he was the first to fly from Brisbane to Sydney in one day, and the first person to fly over Sydney at night.
Date of death	30/04/1924	He died at the age of thirty from lymphatic leukaemia and was buried at Waverley Cemetery after a military funeral. His comrades in the AFC erected a memorial over the foot of his grave, consisting of iron propellor blades formed into a cross.