Ed Butler son of Sir Adam Butler MP and grandson of Conservative politician Richard Austen "Rab" Butler. Ed Butler Brigadier Edward Adam Butler CBE, DSO (born 27 February 1962) is a former British Army officer who commanded Task Force Helmand. Educated at Eton College and the University of Exeter, Butler was commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets in August 1984. He was mentioned in dispatches for his service in Northern Ireland in November 1991, received the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service for his service in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia in Autumn 1997 and received the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service again
Rab Butler aired his doubts freely in private while he was supporting the government in public, and he later admitted that he should have resigned. On 14 November, Butler blurted out all that had happened to 20 Conservative MPs of the Progress Trust in a Commons Dining Room (his speech was described by Gilmour as "almost suicidally imprudent"). Butler had to announce British withdrawal from the Canal Zone (22 November), making him once again appear an "appeaser" to Conservative supporters up and down the country. That evening, Butler addressed the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, where his pedestrian defence of government policy