Now the Dust Has Settled

As a child, Freddie De Butts wanted to be a soldier like his father and into the Army he duly went. Following the year of his first posting in India, the fateful events of 1939 took him to Egypt and on to Intelligence appointments throughout the Desert War under such well-known names as O'Connor, 'Strafer' Gott and Horrocks. He took part in the Sicilian campaign and spent the winter of 1943-'44 as a brigade major in Italy, going on via instructor at the Staff College in England to Germany and the end of the War.

A short interlude in England was followed by a posting back to his own regiment, the Somerset Light Infantry, the last British troops in India. Immediately after their departure, Freddie went on to Malaysia, from then on accompanied, except in Aden, by his family.

For the last part of his army career, Brigadier De Butts served almost entirely in the Middle East. He spent two and a half years in Cyprus during the EOKA troubles (1955-'57), a further two and a half years in Aden commanding an Arab battalion in the Protectorate (1958-'60), and three years commanding the Trucial Oman Scouts in the Persian Gulf (1964-'67). Finally, he held a diplomatic appointment as Defence Attache, Cairo.

During his army life he saw the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the British Empire in India, Cyprus, Aden and the Gulf: his book is an eyewitness account of an important but at present much-misrepresented part of twentieth-century history.

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