Butler, R(ichard) A(usten) Butler, Baron also called Rab 1902-82
English Conservative politician

Born in Attock Serai, India, the son of a distinguished administrator, he was educated at Marlborough and Cambridge, was president of the University Union in 1924, and Fellow of Corpus Christi College from 1925 to 1929, when he became MP for Saffron Walden, Essex. After a series of junior ministerial appointments from 1932, he was Minister of Education (1941-45). His name will always be associated with the Education Act of 1944 which reorganized the secondary school system and introduced the 11-plus examination for the selection of grammar school pupils. In the 1951 Churchill government he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, and in 1955 introduced the emergency 'credit squeeze' budget, which was to be his last. In the same year he became Lord Privy Seal (until 1959) and Leader of the House of Commons (until 1961). He was widely expected to succeed Anthony Eden as Prime Minister in 1957, but Harold Macmillan was chosen and Butler became Home Secretary (until 1962). First Secretary of State and deputy Prime Minister (1962-63), he again narrowly lost the premiership to Alec Douglas-Home in 1963, and became Foreign Secretary (1963-64). Once described as 'both irreproachable and unapproachable', he will go down as one of the most progressive, thoughtful, and dedicated of Tory leaders. In 1965 he was appointed Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and was made a life peer.