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Robert John Cuthbert Butler was a British/Australian politician, preacher and author active in Sydney, Brisbane, and Western Australia in the early to mid-20th century.
Butler was born Robert Thomas Poxon in 1889 to a family of tenant farmers in Kent, England. Butler was one of seven children, and his father John Albert Poxon, in addition to working as a farmer, occasionally preached for the Methodist Church. In 1896, following a succession of poor crop yields and rising labor costs, the family declared bankruptcy and moved to the suburb of Wincheap in the city of Canterbury.
There is little available information on Butler’s formal education. However, he appears very well spoken and with a good level of knowledge, despite what the circumstances of his birth and living situation might suggest. Butler’s great-grandson and biographer Brendan Scott suggests that he was able to utilize connections through the large Poxon family and the Methodist Church to obtain a decent education; “As members of a large extended family, the Poxons appeared willing and able to provide [Butler] and his siblings with employment and possibly educational opportunities.” (Scott, "Robert John Cuthbert Butler," 32) He justifies this by showing how Butler was able to obtain work as an apprentice tailor through his family connections to a brother-in-law in 1911, and how two of his brothers became bicycle mechanics for a relative’s business in 1909.
In December 1911, Butler married Rosa May Beaven, who was seven months pregnant. She was working in a post office in Canterbury and boarding with one of Butler’s older brothers, which is likely how they met. It is here where we see Butler engage in one of the most consistent features of his life – the reinvention of his name and his identity. He changed his name from Robert Thomas Poxon to Robert John Butler, added seven years to his age to become twenty-eight, and described his occupation as ‘journalist.’ Scott argues that Butler’s identity change is reflective of his ‘desire to change his position in society from that of a working-class tailor with a good education to someone who could express his opinions and beliefs in the public arena.’
Emboldened by his unorthodox religious views, reformist ideology, and ambition to do good in the world, Butler set off for the land he believed best suited for his goals – Australia. Leaving his new wife just days after their marriage, he arrived in Sydney in February of 1912. From there, Butler began working as a preacher for the Presbyterian Church in various locales across New South Wales. Butler frequently gave lectures at the South Bathurst Presbyterian Church, which were frequently reported on by The Bathurst Times. In one February 1913 lecture titled The Peace of Nations, Butler incorporated modern geopolitical circumstances with theological beliefs, rallying against the Boer War as nonsensical and anti-Christian.
After his time in Bathurst, Butler spent a few months in 1913 preaching at St. Andrews in the regional town of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, where he was a frequent contributor for the Wagga Wagga Express.12 Butler wrote on a variety of subjects, from short stories to whatever topics piqued his interest, writing as either Robert J. Butler or Robert J. Cuthbert-Butler.13 In November, an article on Butler’s personal life was published, which contains many fabricated details about his life. Most importantly, it falsely claims that he received a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford and that he was a former member of the International Diplomatic Service (I.D.S). A serialized story written by Butler was also published at this time titled 'A Game With Crowds'. Set in South Africa, the protagonist, Hugh Gilton, undergoes a political awakening and becomes a socialist advocate.The story meshes Butler’s own political beliefs with his Christian theology and growing interest in the labor movement.
Butler had a formal interest in politics for some time, having made some connections with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) a few years prior. Butler was also heavily involved with the temperance movement, having joined the International Organisation of Good Templars (IOGT), a Christian fraternal organisation dedicated to that cause. In early 1914, clearly wishing to expand his reformist message to a broader audience, Butler made the move from New South Wales to Brisbane, Queensland, now styling himself as Rev. R. J. C. Butler. There, he began working as a touring lecturer for the IOGT, and in June, he was appointed as one of the three Grand Lodge organisers. 1914 was also the year that his wife, Rosa, and their children, finally immigrated to Australia to be with her husband.
Butler also continued to deliver his sermons at the Ann Street Presbyterian Church, which were consistently reported on by the Daily Standard. During these sermons, he “nail[ed] his colours to the mast of social justice and the labour cause,” which was enough to earn him the ALP endorsement for the seat of Toombul in the state election. However, Butler was unable to unseat Liberal Party MP Andrew Lang Petrie.
In the latter half of 1915, Butler began immersing himself in a growing pro-peace and anti-war movement opposing Australia’s involvement in the First World War. He began to distance himself from the Presbyterian Church at this time, due to their pro-war stance, and took up a job as a librarian at the Queensland Museum. Butler now began to call himself R. J. Cuthbert-Butler, or simply Cuthbert Butler. In 1916, Butler played a key role in pushing back against calls for conscription by Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Hughes in Queensland, especially during the 1916 conscription referendum. On the 15th of September, Butler took part in an Australian Worker’s Union (AWU) meeting where the Queensland Anti-Conscription Campaign Committee (QACCC) was formed. Butler was chosen to be a part of the Literature Committee, who was tasked with the publicity side of the campaign. According to a 13th of October article printed in the Daily Standard, a ‘mob of soldiers’ physically assaulted Butler during a speech he was giving at an anti-conscription rally.
Following the failure of the conscription referendum, Butler had gained the attention of the ALP leadership and was selected to contest the seat of Moreton in the 1917 federal election. His opponent was Hugh Sinclair, a Nationalist Party MP, running as part of the coalition formed by Prime Minister Hughes following his expulsion from the Labor Party. The ALP thought the seat of Moreton was vulnerable following their high ‘No’ vote turnout, and Butler was consistently supported by Queensland Premiere T. J. Ryan on the campaign trail. The race was incredibly tight and took over a month to count, with the result being a narrow loss for Butler by 58 votes.
In the leadup to the second referendum on the issue of conscription in December 1917, the atmosphere was tense in Queensland. Premiere T. J. Ryan remained opposed to conscription, with many of his speeches printed in the Daily Standard being censored or deleted entirely under the War Precautions Act 1914. The printing of news was heavily controlled, and Butler was later said to have taken precautions against this by burying a printing press under the family’s chicken coop. In his capacity with the QACCC, Butler conspired with General Secretary Lewis McDonald, State Treasurer E. G. Theodore and Premiere T. J. Ryan to ‘have the suppressed material read on the floor of parliament so that it would be entered into the parliamentary record.’ The men attempted to have the material published numerous times, eventually leading to a military raid of the Government Printing House on the 26th of November. The atmosphere got so violent that some union leaders in Brisbane were prepared for the possibility of civil war over the issue. Following the aftermath of the raid, all of the men involved, including Butler, were charged with conspiracy to distribute unlawful material. However, the prosecution failed to find enough evidence for the case to formally begin, so the charges were dropped.
In 1918, Butler once again ran for election, this time contesting the state seat of Lockyer. The ALP believed that, given his strong showing in the last election, Butler was the right candidate, and in March of that year, Butler was elected the member for Lockyer. Scott writes that Butler became a ‘vocal advocate for his constituents’ during his time in parliament, elevating the various agricultural issues of his rural voters. Butler also continued to rally against the War Precautions Act 1914, especially against the detainment of Germans in internment camps. In July, he penned a letter to be published in the Queensland Times that was rejected by the censor and earned him a ₤5 fine.
Butler’s beliefs and advocacy led him to clashing with Queensland Premiere T. J. Ryan numerous times, and his lack of success in pushing through reforms important to him made him become disillusioned with the political process. However, Butler continued his political career for the next few years, becoming steadily involved with the local unions, and especially one Australian Worker’s Union (AWU) official Ernie Lane. Later in life, Butler reflected on this period of political disillusionment to Lane, writing:
Before I’d been in the House three months I was disillusioned and woke up to the price a man must pay for political advancement. It was not easy for me to turn my back on the political career I knew I could have had. I knew I possessed that terribly dangerous gift of public speech ... I knew I could play the game as shrewdly as the men leading the party ... but I knew also that I would have to adopt the ethics of the game ... So instead of doing what a more heroic man would have done, and stayed in the arena and gone down fighting for cleaner politics and decency in public life ... I lifted my tent and ran away from the fight. Even that was better than selling out to the game, and now as the shadows begin to gather I have no regrets that I decided to follow other paths. (Source: Letter from RJC Butler to E Lane, 1947, Lane family papers, John Oxley Library, as quoted in Scott, “Robert John Cuthbert Butler,” 108-09.)
In the 1920 state election, Butler lost his seat to a Country Party MP. Believing the ALP to no longer be the right ‘vehicle’ to advance his political agenda, Butler left the party. He also left the state of Queensland entirely, reconnecting with the temperance movement and his preaching activities in New South Wales. After a few years in Sydney, Butler, his wife Rosa, and their four boys moved to Western Australia in 1924. Butler took a job as director of the Prohibition League but continued to preach in churches across Perth. Leaving behind the cumbersome ‘Cuthbert’ name for good, Butler now began to go by R. J. C. Butler.
The Butler family appears to have been hit hard by the Great Depression in 1930, with Butler’s wife, Rosa, opening a general store in the suburb of Inglewood, run by her and the older teenage boys. This led Butler to resigning from the Prohibition League and taking a more stable job as minister for the Augustine Congregational Church in Bunbury. The Great Depression also seems to have re-ignited Butler’s interest in politics, as he became interested in the growing Douglas Social Credit Movement. He had been working for various unemployment relief organizations, but in 1931, he was working for the movement as its official writer. By 1935, he was the movement's state secretary in Western Australia, and he toured the state and gave lectures on what was frequently seen as a confusing and divisive set of economic proposals.
In May 1934, Butler ran for the Western Australia Legislative Council but was unsuccessful. In January of 1936, Butler tried again in the state elections, this time as a Nationalist Party candidate for Bunbury, but still running under a program of social credit. During this election, his main opponent was the ALP, his old party. He was unsuccessful this time as well, despite expectations. Many of his former friends expressed disappointment that he had seemingly abandoned his principles, but he would maintain that he remained a socialist.
Following his defeat in the state election, Butler decided to once again move the family back to Sydney that year in September, resigning from his position in the Douglas Social Credit Movement in Western Australia. Butler continued to campaign for the movement in New South Wales, being appointed the State Director of Organisation and going on a speaking tour in north regional New South Wales. While in Sydney, he regularly spoke on the 2GB radio station. Despite Butler’s enthusiasm for the movement, it was waning in support nationally. In the October 1937 elections, it had lost over half of its support.
As the 1930s drew to a close, and war once again came upon Australia, Butler began to distance himself from the Douglas Social Credit Movement, which was increasingly taking on a far-right conspiratorial tone. He once again turned his focus to the churches, becoming a regular preacher for the Unitarian Church on Francis Street, Darlinghurst, and occasionally speaking on ABC’s 2FC Radio. In the late 1940s, now aged in his 50s, Butler began working part time at a Dymocks bookstore on George Street, slowly phasing out his public appearances as his health worsened. He also began regular correspondence with his old friend and fellow disillusioned socialist Ernie Lane. In one letter he jokingly complained that the solutions to the world’s problems are really quite clear, but ‘we seem to be the only two people on earth who do think so!’
On the 8th of November 1950, at the age of 61, Robert John Cuthbert Butler died at his home in Sydney from cancer. In his biography, Scott reflects ‘For him, and many other radicals of his era, the solution to poverty and social justice appeared obvious and simple — the problem was that outside of their own movements, nobody else agreed.’
This biography has been researched and written by Brandon Mount.
Sources:
Scott, Brendan. “Robert John Cuthbert Butler: A Life in Three Sermons: Radicalism and Identity in the Labour Movement, 1889–1950.” Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Flinders University, 2021. https://flex.flinders.edu.au/file/9a5b8ba3-203b-4a72-bcd6-ce26ca82aefc/1/ScottPhD2021_LibraryCopy.pdf.
Waterson, D. B. “Robert John Cuthbert Butler (1889–1950).” In Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, 1979. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/butler-robert-john-cuthbert-5449.
“Douglas Credit Movement – Mr. R. J. C. Butler’s Resignation,” The West Australian, 22 September 1936, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/40961120?searchTerm=butler.
“Fraternities – I.O.G.T,” Daily Standard, 6 June 1914, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/178884648?searchTerm=Good%20Templars%E2%80%99%20Hall%20butler.
“No Conscription! – Consolidating Labor Forces – Magnificent Solidarity – Last Night’s Important Conference – Strong Representative Executive Formed – Interesting Developments in The South,” Daily Standard, 15 September 1916, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/181080083?searchTerm=butler.
“Personal,” Wagga Wagga Express, 29 November 1913, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/145376396?searchTerm=Robert%20J.%20Cuthbert%20Butler.
“Soldier’s Brutality,” Daily Standard, 13 October 1916, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/181083703?searchTerm=butler.
“South Bathurst Presbyterian Church,” The Bathurst Times, 13 February 1913, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/111222326?searchTerm=butler.
“The Douglas Social Credit Proposals – Statement by the Movement – Reply to Mr. H. R. Sleeman,” The Daily News, 25 April 1931, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/83925970?searchTerm=butler.
