Frank Hedges Butler, Vanity Fair, 1907-12-11

Frank Hedges Butler (17 December 1855 – 27 November 1928) was a British wine merchant, and a founding member of the

Aero Club of Great Britain The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910. History The Aero Club was fou ...

Early life

Frank Hedges Butler was born in London on 17 December 1855, the fifth son of the wine merchant James Butler and his wife, Frances Mary, the eldest daughter of Butler's business partner, William Hedges. He was educated at a preparatory school in

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, and at a boarding school in

Upper Clapton Clapton is a district of East London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney. Clapton is divided into Upper Clapton, in the north, and Lower Clapton to the south. Clapton railway station lies north-east of Charing Cross. Geography and origi ...

. Butler then studied in France and Germany in order to learn the languages.

Career

Butler became a partner in the family business, Hedges and Butler, in 1882. He was one of the first people in Britain to own a motor car, buying a Benz in 1897, and was the first honorary treasurer of the

Automobile Club of Great Britain The Royal Automobile Club is a British private social and athletic club. It has two clubhouses: one in London at 89 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, near Epsom in Surrey. Both provide accommodation and a rang ...

. With

Charles Rolls Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with ...

, he helped to organize races from 1898, including the RAC 1000 mile Challenge, in which he took part, accompanied by his daughter. He was introduced to

balloon A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...

ing by

. During an ascent from Crystal Palace in London on 24 September 1901 in a balloon named ''City of York'', he was accompanied by Rolls, his daughter Vera Hedges Butler, and

Stanley Spencer (aeronaut) Stanley Edward Spencer (1868–1906) was an early English aeronaut, famous for ballooning and parachuting in several countries, and later for building and flying an airship over London in 1902. Stanley's family had a history of flying: all hi ...

. While flying over

Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of Bromley and Greenwich. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the ...

, Frank's daughter Vera suggested the formation of an aero club within the Automobile Club. This, the Aero Club of Great Britain, later the Royal Aero Club, would become the regulatory body for aviation in England, responsible for issuing pilot's licenses and also playing an important part in the development of military aviation in Britain. By 1907 he had made more than a hundred balloon ascents, including the longest solo flight made in England in 1902, and what was then the longest cross-channel balloon voyage, from

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan The London Plan is the statutory spatial development strategy for the Gre ...

in London to

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,eclipse of the sun A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six month ...

. In 1907 he published an account of his ballooning career, entitle
''5000 miles in a Balloon''
Butler was the second English passenger taken by Wilbur Wright during his demonstration flights in France during 1908. He later became the first person to take a flying lesson at the flying school established at

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

by Louis Blériot, although he never gained a pilot's license. He was an enthusiastic traveller, not only frequently visiting

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

in connection with his business, but also travelling to the Far East, North and South America, Lapland and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. An account of his trip to Lapland
''Through Lapland with Reindeer and Skis''
was published in 1917, and other travel books include ''Fifty Years of Travel by Land, Water and Air'' (1920), ''Round the World'' (1925) and ''Wine and the Wine Lands of the World'' (1927). He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

in 1877.

Personal life

He married Ada Tickle, the daughter of a wool merchant, in 1880: the couple had two daughters, Frances, who died in infancy and Vera.Brevet Major (Honorary Lieutenant Colonel) Hugh Iltid Nicholl, flickr.com (Vera Butler married Hugh Iltid Nicholl in 1904.)
/ref> Ada died in 1905. Hedges Butler was an able amateur violinist and played as one of the first violins for the Imperial Institute Orchestral Society, which he founded in 1894. He was also a keen golfer, yachtsman and big-game hunter. He died in a nursing home at 29

Wimpole Street Wimpole Street is a street in Marylebone, central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is associated with private medical practice and medical associations. No. 1 Wimpole Street is an example of Edwardian baroque architecture, compl ...

, London, on 27 November 1928 and was buried in

Norwood cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of L ...

References

External links

Text of ''Fifty Years of Travel by Land, Water and Air'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Frank Hedges 1855 births 1928 deaths English balloonists Wine merchants English travel writers Burials at West Norwood Cemetery 19th-century English businesspeople 20th-century English businesspeople