Private and Family Life
Butler married Sydney Elizabeth Courtauld in 1926. She was the daughter of Samuel Courtauld and heiress to part of the Courtauld textile fortune. They lived at Stanstead Hall (aka Stansted Hall) in Essex. Their children were the Hon Sir Richard C Butler KT DL (1929–2012), Adam Courtauld Butler (1931–2008), who was also a politician, the Hon Samuel James Butler (born 1936) and Sarah Teresa Butler (born 1944).
Following the death of his wife from jaw cancer in 1954, Butler married Mollie Courtauld (née Montgomerie) in September 1959. She had been previously married to Augustine Courtauld (Sydney's cousin), who had died in March 1959. Butler and his new wife lived at their London houses in Lord North Street and Smith Square, the Master's Lodge at Trinity College Cambridge, Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire (inherited by Rab from Samuel Courtauld, Sydney's father) and a holiday house on the Isle of Mull.
In 1976, Gatcombe Park was sold to the Queen as a home for Princess Anne and Mollie and Rab bought back Spencers, the old Courtauld family home in Essex where Mollie had previously resided with Augustine Courtauld. Mollie continued living at Spencers after Rab's death in 1982 and up until her own death on February 18, 2009 at the age of 101.
Read more about this topic: Rab Butler
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