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"Chancellor of the
Exchequer" Rab Butler Signed TLS Dated 1956.
ES-4374
Richard Austen Butler,
Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, KG, CH, PC, DL (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), generally known
as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials
as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative politician. The Times obituary called him "the creator of the modern
educational system, the key-figure in the revival of post-war Conservatism,
arguably the most successful chancellor since the war and unquestionably a Home
Secretary of reforming zeal."[1] He was one of his party's leaders in
promoting the post-war consensus through which the major parties largely agreed on the
main points of domestic policy until the 1970s, sometimes known as
"Butskellism" from an elision of his name with that of his Labour
counterpart Hugh Gaitskell. Born into a
family of academics and Indian administrators, Butler enjoyed a brilliant
academic career before entering Parliament in 1929. As a junior minister, he helped to pass the Government
of India Act, 1935. He strongly supported the appeasement of Nazi Germany in 1938–39. Entering the Cabinet in
1941, he served as Education Minister (1941–45,
overseeing the Education Act 1944). When
the Conservatives returned to power in 1951 he served as Chancellor
of the Prime
Minister (1962–63) Butler had an exceptionally
long ministerial career and was one of only two British politicians (the other
being John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon) to
have served in three of the four Great Offices of State but never to have been Prime Minister, for which he was passed over in 1957 and 1963. At the
time, the Conservative Leadership was decided by a process of private
consultation rather than by a formal vote. After retiring from politics in
1965, Butler was Cambridge.
