Political career of Rab Butler: 1929–1941 Political career of Rab Butler: 1929–1941 Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), generally known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative politician. Butler was elected to Parliament for Saffron Walden in Essex at the 1929 General Election, and soon became a parliamentary assistant to Samuel Hoare, the leading Conservative politician associated with Indian policy. Butler attended the Second Round Table Conference and early in 1932 he visited India on Lord Lothian's Franchise Committee, which recommended an increase in the Indian franchise.
Butler Committee for open hospitals but did not need to go to a high secure hospital. Lord Butler, or Rab Butler as he was widely known, was a leading Conservative politician who had been Home Secretary (responsible for crime) from 1957 to 1962, and for that reason his suitability as impartial chairman was questioned in parliament. He was at the time President of the charity the National Association for Mental Health (later renamed Mind), and Chairman of the Trustees of the charity the Mental Health Trust and Research Fund (shortly thereafter renamed the Mental Health Foundation). The Final Report made numerous recommendations,