AUTOGRAPH -- Vice Admiral Vice Admiral Henry Varnum Butler, Jr. For Sale

Up for sale is another of the autographs acquired by San Diego City Clerk Allen Wright in the early 1930s .
All of these autographs are guaranteed authentic .Henry Varnum Butler was appointed to the Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, from the Sixth District of New York in 1891. He receive his commission as an ensign in 1887. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War he was aide to Captain Charles Vernon Gridley, commanding officer of USS Olympia, Admiral George Dewey's flagship. He participated in the Battle of Manila Bay and was present when Admiral Dewey uttered his famous words: "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."He was attached to USS Buffalo during the Boxer Uprising in China and was aboard that vessel at Taku when the Seymour Relief Expedition started for Peking in 1900. During the Philippine Insurrection he commanded USS Mindora, a small river gunboat, and in the fall of 1901 he went aboard USS Vicksburg. After his return to the United States in 1903, he had a two-year tour of shore duty at the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island, and in the Bureau of Steam Engineering, in the Navy Department, Washington, DC. In 1906 he was assigned to USS West Virginia.He commanded USS San Francisco, flagship of the Mine-laying Squadron in World War I, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for service in command of that vessel. In 1926 he was assigned to the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida where he qualified as a naval aviation observer. He was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in 1927 and was placed in command of the Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet in 1929.From 1931 to 1933 he served as the commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. The sudden death of Rear Admiral Ridley B. McClean in 1933 left a vacancy in the battleship divisions, causing the unexpected transfer of Admiral Butler from Washington to the West Coast. In May 1934, Rear Admiral Butler assumed command of the Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Force. Shortly after taking that command, he was appointed a vice admiral, becoming the first officer of that rank to be placed in command of the Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Force.