David Bensusan-Butt - Career

Career

After a short period working for The Economist, Bensusan-Butt joined the civil service in 1938. Early in the Second World War he became private secretary to Frederick Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, then worked for Winston Churchill. While he was First Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill created a Statistical Section in the Admiralty which was joined by Bensusan-Butt, Roy Harrod, Bryan Hopkin, Douglas MacDougall and Tom Wilson.

At Lindemann's instigation Butt was responsible for the analysis of the RAF's bombing campaign that showed to Churchill the poor results that were actually being achieved.

Bensusan-Butt later joined the Royal Navy, serving on the minelayer HMS Cyclone.

Following the war, Butt moved to the Economic Section of the Cabinet Office and later the Treasury. In 1949-1950 he was seconded to the Australian Prime Minister's Department, and he spent two periods of one year at Nuffield College, Oxford as a research fellow, in 1953-1954 and 1958-1959.

In 1962, he became a Professorial Fellow in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) of the Australian National University, remaining there for fifteen years. In 1975-1976 he was the most influential member of the Asprey Committee on tax reform, recommending a dramatic change from a complicated system of income taxes to a broad-based consumption tax.

In 1976, he retired to London, settling in part of the 17th century house at Stamford Brook of his uncle by marriage Camille Pissarro.