Denis Ryall Butler (1939). Denis was born in Kuruman in 1921. In 1928 he entered Kingswood College, Grahamstown where he matriculated in 1938. He studied for his BA at Rhodes from 1939 to 1942, and in May 1942, joined the South African and Royal Artillery. He was in action in the Italian Campaign and was mentioned in despatches. While still a student he met Dorothea Ferguson-Davie (Dee), and on embarkation leave they married on 5 July 1943. After Denis was demobilised in February 1946, he returned to Rhodes to complete his UED and attained honours in History. He joined the teaching staff of his beloved Kingswood College and taught English, History, Geography, Latin and developmental reading.

He was housemaster at Kingswood for 21 years, overlapping as vice principal for ten years. He became headmaster in May 1974, and retired early in November 1978. He served on the board of the Grahamstown Building Society, and developed a passion for micro-turning - making jewellery and buttons from indigenous woods.

Denis and his late wife Dee moved from Grahamstown to Umkomaas in 1987, to be near their eldest son, Tony. The couple had four children, Tony, Rosemary, Julian and Angela who all enjoyed a fabulous childhood, having been brought up on the Kingswood campus.

Denis became well-known in the Umkomaas and Scottburgh area for his flea-market stalls which he togehter with Dee would man. She was enormously long-suffering of his enthusiastic whims. Two years ago Dee dies at the same time that Denis had suffered a brain bleed. Since then he had not been well, and he died in his sleep on Saturday February 7 2004. He is survived by his four children, eight grand-children and seven great-grandchildren. Mid South Coast Mail, February 13, 2004

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/SOUTH-AFRICA-EASTERN-...

• Updated from FamilySearch Family Tree via father Harold Challacombe Butler by SmartCopy: Jul 21 2015, 20:45:07 UTC