| St John Desmond Arcedeckne-Butler | |
| Birth Date: | 1896 11, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Dickoya, Ceylon |
| Death Place: | County Wexford, Ireland |
| Allegiance: |  United Kingdom |
| Serviceyears: | 1915–1946 |
| Servicenumber: | 10309 |
| Rank: | Major-General |
| Unit: | Royal Munster Fusiliers Royal Sussex Regiment Royal Corps of Signals |
| Commands: | Signals Experimental Establishment |
| Battles: | First World War Second World War |
| Awards: | CBE |
| Relations: | Baron Dunboyne |
Major-General St John Desmond Arcedeckne-Butler (30 November 1896 – 4 February 1959), was a senior British Army officer and head of MI8.
Educated in the USA and Switzerland, Arcedeckne-Butler entered the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, being commissioned into the Royal Munster Fusiliers in 1915. Serving with distinction in France and Belgium during the Great War, he was decorated with the Légion d'honneur and was one of the two young British Army officers sent to study at the prestigious École Supérieure d'Électricité (Supélec) in Paris at the end of World War I.[1]
Arcedeckne-Butler transferred to the Royal Sussex Regiment in 1922 and then to the Royal Corps of Signals in 1923.
Between 1934 and 1939, Arcedeckne-Butler served as Superintendent of the Signals Experimental Establishment and as Army Member of the Experimental sub-committee of the Wireless Telegraphy Board.[2]
Appointed Colonel in 1938, Arcedeckne-Butler joined the General Staff at the War Office in 1940 and, promoted Major-General (temporary), served as Deputy Director-General of the Ministry of Supply between 1941 and 1946.
General Arcedeckne-Butler was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1946 New Year Honours,[3] retiring from the British Army the same year. He later became a Director of Romary & Co. Ltd, Thermionic Products Ltd and other companies as well as a member of the Broadcasting Advisory Committee, Eire.
Scion of the Irish Butler dynasty, his great-great-grandfather was the 13th Baron Dunboyne (1780–1850). His father, St John Henry Arcedeckne-Butler (1868–1914) married in 1896 Maud, daughter of Captain Albert Money, late RCRR, of Little Stodham House, Liss, Hampshire, and sister of Brigadier-General Noel Money .[4]
In 1929 he married Ethel Helen Nesbitt Walker (1905–1953), daughter of Colonel Reginald Selby Walker, (killed in action 1918), having two sons and a daughter:
The Arcedeckne-Butlers are in remainder to the Dunboyne peerage title.[6]
| Notes: | Exemplified to James Henry Edward Butler Esq, son of the Hon. St John Butler, by Anna Maria his wife, only daughter and heiress of Walter Arcedeckne Burke Esq, of Gortnamona, County Galway, upon assuming by Royal Licence, 4th November 1867, the additional surname of Arcedeckne. |
| Escutcheon: | Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Or, a chief indented Azure three Escallops in bend counterchanged, a Label on a Crescent for difference (for BUTLER); 2nd and 3rd, Argent, three Chevronels Sable (for ARCEDECKNE).[7] |
| Motto: | TIMOR DOMINI FONS VITAE |
| Crest: | 1st, out of a Ducal Coronet Or, a Plume of five Ostrich Feathers therefrom a Demi-Falcon rising Argent a Label on a Crescent for difference (for BUTLER); 2nd, a Cubit Arm erect vested Argent charged with three Chevronels Sable the Hand Proper grasping a Sword Argent pommel and hilt Or (for ARCEDECKNE). |
| Orders: | The Circlet of the Order of the British Empire |