of 'outlanders' in the Transvaal was exciting indignation, but in the clamour that arose he saw only the action of 'a colossal syndicate for the spread of systematic misrepresentation,' with the object of embittering the relations between the races. He refused to forward the petition of the outlanders asking for British intervention. He had already declared in a speech at Grahamstown on 17 Dec. that South Africa did not need a surgical operation.
Sir Alfred Milner returned from England in February 1899, and Butler was relieved of civil administration. He had been called upon to prepare a scheme of defence for Cape Colony and Natal in case of a sudden outbreak of hostilities. He paid a visit to Natal and formed his plans, but believing that they would not find favour at the war office, he kept them to himself, till there was a peremptory call for them in June. His relations with the high commissioner became strained owing to their widely different views of the situation. Butler could only see in it 'a plot to force war on the Transvaal,' which he did his best to balk. At length a reproof from the war office led him to tender his resignation on 4 July. It was accepted, and he handed over the command on 23 Aug. He returned to England, and on 8 Sept. assumed command of the western district.
He held this command for six years, with the exception of four months spent at Aldershot at the end of 1900. On 9 Oct. in that year he was promoted lieut.-general. In February 1903 he gave evidence before the royal commission on the war in South Africa. In the spring of 1905 he presided over a committee on the disposal of the war stores in South Africa. His report (dated 22 May) led to the appointment of a royal commission with Sir George Farwel as president, which toned down his strictures to some extent. On 31 Oct. 1905 he was placed on the retired list, having reached the age of 67. He received the G.C.B in June 1906, and was called to the privy council (Ireland) in 1909. He was made a governor of the Royal Hibernian Military School, a member of the senate of the National University of Ireland, and a commissioner of the board of national education in Ireland. He took keen interest in educational questions, sympathised with the Gaelic League, and gave many striking addresses on aspects of Irish life and character. He died on 7 June 1910 at Bansha Castle, co. Tipperary where he had lived since his retirement, He was buried with military honours at Killardrigh, the resting-place of his fore-fathers.
His wife survived him. They had issue three sons and two daughters. The younger daughter, Eileen, married Viscount Gormanton in 1912.
A portrait of him as a general officer on horseback, painted by Lady Butler in 1899, is at Bansha Castle.
Besides the works already mentioned describing his own experiences, Butler wrote:
- 'Far out: Rovings retold,' 1880.
- 'Red Cloud, the Solitary Sioux,' 1882.
- 'Charles George Gordon,' 1889, and
- 'Sir Charles Napier,' 1890, both in the 'Men of Action' series.
- 'Sir George Pomeroy Colley,' 1899.
- 'From Naboth's Vineyard: being Impressions formed during a Fourth Visit to South Africa,' 1907.
- ' The Light of the West, with some other Wayside Thoughts,' 1909.
His autobiography, which he began in March 1909 and worked on till his death, was edited by his elder daughter, and published in 1911. He also wrote much which is unpublished on Napoleon and the St. Helena captivity.
[Sir William Butler: an autobiography, 1911, with reproduction of Lady Butler's portrait; Report of the Royal Commission on the War in South Africa (pp. 201-7) and Evidence, ii. 72-92, 1904; The Times, 8 June 1910; Lord Wolseley, Story of a Soldier's Life, 1903; H. E. Colville, History of the Sudan Campaign, 1889.]
BYRNE, Sir EDMUND WIDDRINGTON (1844–1904), judge, born at Islington on 30 June 1844, was eldest son of Edmund Byrne of Whitehall Place, Westminster, solicitor, by his wife Mary Elizabeth Co well. Educated at King's College, London, he entered as student at Lincoln's Inn on 5 Nov. 1863, was a pupil in the chambers of (Sir) George Osborne Morgan [q. v. Suppl. I], and was called to the bar on 26 Jan. 1867. Starting his career with a family connection among solicitors, he soon made for himself a large business as a conveyancer and equity draftsman, while his powers of clear and concise statement in court gave him a position among the leading juniors of the chancery bar; a place in his pupil room in Lincoln's Inn was much sought after. He took silk in 1888 and became a bencher of his inn in 1892. Attaching himself to the court of Mr. Justice Chitty [q. v. Suppl. I], he quickly obtained the lion's share of the work there in conjunction with Robert Romer, Q.C., destined to be his colleague on
