Butler, Norman Thomas

No.5333 – Private Norman Butler –

4^th Machine Gun Company AIF

Norman Thomas Butler was born in Port Adelaide South Australia in 1889. He had a few siblings, with Winifred (born 1891), Nellie (born 1895) also born in South Australia and Arthur (born 1899), Collyn (1909) and Bonnie (born 1911) being born in WA. Norman resided for a time in Subiaco but by 1913 he was living in North Fremantle. He married Fanny Needle in Fremantle in 1913 and they had one son named Alfred. The family set up residence at 4 Swan Street North Fremantle. Norm was a Fitter’s labourer and had served for 2 years in the Western Australian Infantry Regiment.

Norm enlisted into the AIF on the 10^th February 1916 and the medical examiner found him to be 5 feet 7 inches in height; weight of 148 lbs; chest measurement of 38 ½ inches; dark complexion; light blue eyes and dark hair. His religious denomination was Church of England. Norm was assigned to the 17^th Reinforcements to the 16^th Battalion which left Fremantle on the H.M.A.T. “Aeneas” on the 17^th April 1916. After arrival in Egypt Norm was allotted to the machine gun reinforcements and trained with them until he left for France on the 7^th June 1916. After arriving at Marseilles he was sent north to the 4^th Australian Division Base Depot at Etaples and then the Machine Gun School at Camiers. He was taken on strength of the 4^th Machine Gun Company at Pozieres on the 15^th August 1916.

On the 29^th August the 4^th Brigade made an advance on German positions at Mouquet Farm. Though the men got into the farm the Germans managed to push them out. Sometime during the attack Norm was killed. No eyewitness reports have been found regarding his death and his body was never recovered. He is therefore commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial to the Missing.

His wife, Fanny, continued to put notices in the paper regarding his death. In 1918 she placed the following in the West Australian;

“In proud and loving memory of my dear husband,

Corporal Norman Thomas Butler,

killed in action Pozieres, August 29 1916 aged 27 years.

Days of sadness still come o’er me,

Sweet tears do often flow,

For memory keeps my loved on near me,

Though he was killed two years ago.

Inserted by his sorrowing wife Fanny Butler and his dear children