Next morning came back into town to check out the Red Devil
Old well along the roadside
Henry John (Harry) Butler was born on 9th November 1889 @ Yorketown hospital. The son of James & Sarria Butler, he grew up on a small farm @ Koolywurtie. Whilst at school, Harry showed enthusiasm for mechanics by building model aircraft & caught his mother's chooks, weighed them, measured their wingspan & released them.
He was obsessed with the desire to FLY!!!
In 1915 Harry Bulter applied for entry into the Australian flying school in Melbourne. He couldn't wait to find out if he had been accepted, so he paid his own way to England & enlisted in the Royal Flying corps. Harry was accepted first as an aircraft mechanic but his talents were quickly recognised & he was soon flying as a pilot over France. He would attach himself to a fighter squadron for some weeks at a time, learning about new German tactics & then return to the flying school to teach the counter measures that he had devised. More than 2,700 students passed through his instruction & while they could be taught to fly, Harry Butler was an airman born!!!
On 6th August 1919, Harry Butler came home in his Bristol M.1C monoplane, affectionately named the "RED DEVIL". He was the first man to fly across Gulf St Vincent to Yorke peninsula. With an inflated tyre tube around his waist as a safety precaution in case he had to ditch the tiny plane. Captain Harry Butler carried with him 40 pounds of postcards & letters for delivery to Minlaton, believed to be the first airmail over water in the southern hemisphere.
As he approached Harry & his Red Devil were welcomed by 6000 well-wishers, many curious for their first glimpse of an aircraft.
Disaster struck in January 1922 when Harry Butler's Avro bi-plane crashed in a wheat paddock near Minlaton. Harry suffered extensive head injuries & his beloved plane was beyond repair. Harry's health suffered to the extent that he retired from flying.
Captain Harry Butler died suddenly on 30th July 1924 from an unsuspected cerebral abscess. He was buried in Adelaide with full military honours, thousands came to pay silent tribute to a decorated war hero, who had captured the public's imagination & to whom early flight in South Australia owes so much
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