Butler attended Haileybury, before coming up to Pembroke College, where he graduated with a double first, having also been President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter Term 1895. He became a Fellow of Pembroke in 1895 and entered the Indian Civil Service in 1896. He went on to be Governor of the Central Provinces of British-occupied India (1925-1933), Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man (1933-1937), and Master of Pembroke College from 1937-1948. Butler was also Mayor of Cambridge for two years between 1941 and 1943.