Henry John Butler

Henry John 'Harry' Butler AFC (9 November 1889 – 30 July 1924) was a pioneer Australian aviator, Captain and Chief Fight Instructor in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. When he flew an air mail run from Adelaide across Gulf St Vincent to Minlaton on 6 August 1919, it was the first over-water flight in the Southern Hemisphere carrying air mail and the first flight over a major body of water in the southern hemisphere. Early years Butler was born on 9 November 1889 at the main hospital of Yorketown on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula. The son of John James Butler and Sarah Ann Butler née Cook, he grew up on a small farm near Koolywurtie, attending the Koolywurtie Public School. From an early age he showed a strong desire to fly and an aptitude for mechanics; whilst at school he built model aircraft and studied the flying capabilities of his mother's chickens. World War I In 1915 he entered the Australian Flying School at Point Cook, Victoria as an engineer, but resigned 2 weeks later. He travelled to England to join the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 to have an opportunity of pilot training, and was commissioned three weeks later. He became Fighting Instructor (Turnberry, Scotland) and Chief Fighting Instructor in the RFC (at Marske Aerodrome in North Yorkshire) and trained over 2,700 pilots. In 1918 he received the Air Force Cross, and when demobilised in 1919, he held the rank of captain.