Lieutenant John Herbert Butler

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

Rolls

Timeline

Date of birth 19 January 1894
Date and unit at enlistment (ORs) 19 August 1914 Enlisted as a trooper in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment and served at Gallipoli.
Date of embarkation 24 September 1914
Date of recommendation honour or award 1916
Date of recommendation honour or award 1916
Date of recommendation honour or award 1916
Other 1917-01 Transferred to the Australian Flying Corps and trained as a pilot.
Date commissioned 1917-06 Received his commission and served in the Middle East with 1 Squadron AFC.
Date returned to Australia 28 April 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 April 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.