Richard Layton Butler

Who was Richard Layton Butler?

Sir Richard Layton Butler KCMG was the 31st Premier of South Australia, serving two disjunct terms in office: from 1927 to 1930, and again from 1933 to 1938.

Born on a farm near Gawler, South Australia, the son of former South Australian Premier Sir Richard Butler and his wife Helena, Butler studied at Adelaide Agricultural School before becoming a grazier at Kapunda and marrying Maude Draper on 4 January 1908.

Inheriting his father's interest in politics, Butler joined the conservative Liberal Union while young and was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly for the rural electorate of Wooroora at the 1915 election, serving in the House alongside his father. Butler would lose his seat at the 1918 election but regained Wooroora at the 1921 election and retained the seat comfortably for the next seventeen years.

Butler made infrequent speeches in parliament and was in the habit of accidentally offending people through his choice of words. He was, however, known for his convivial style outside parliament and his equally pugnacious style inside the house. In 1925 he became Liberal Federation party whip and then party leader following the retirement of former premier Henry Barwell from politics. At the 1927 election, Butler successfully led the Liberal Federation to victory, winning 23 seats in the 46 seat Assembly, with the coalition Country Party winning five seats, the Australian Labor Party 16, the Independent Protestant Labor Party one and an independent winning a seat. In becoming Premier, Butler and his father became the first father-son combination to serve as Premier of South Australia.