Frank Hedges Butler

Frank Hedges Butler (17 December 1855 – 27 November 1928) was a British wine merchant, and a founding member of the Aero Club of Great Britain.

He was born in London on 17 December 1855, the fifth son of the wine merchant James Butler and his wife, Frances Mary, the eldest daughter of Butler's business partner, William Hedges. He was educated a preparatory school in Brighton and a boarding school in Upper Clapton, and then studied in France and Germany in order to learn the languages.

Butler became a partner in the family business, Hedges and Butler, in 1882. He was one of the first people in Britain to own a motor car, buying a Benz in 1897, and was the first honorary treasurer of the Automobile Club of Great Britain. With Charles Rolls, he helped to organize races from 1898, including the RAC 1000 mile Challenge, in which he took part, accompanied by his daughter.

He was introduced to ballooning by Charles Rolls, and during an ascent accompanied by his daughter, Rolls and Stanley Spencer made on 24 September 1901 in a balloon named City of York, he suggested forming an aero club within the Automobile Club. This, the Aero Club of Great Briain, later the Royal Aero Club, would become the regulatory body for aviation in England, responsible for issuing pilot's licenses and also playing an important part in the development of military aviation in Britain. By 1907 he had made more than a hundred balloon ascents, including the longest solo flight made in England in 1902, and what was then the longest cross-channel balloon voyage, from Wandsworth in London to Caen in 1905. This flight had not originated as an attempt to fly the Channel: the intention had been to observe an eclipse of the sun. In 1907 he published an account of his ballooning career, entitled 5000 miles in a Balloon.

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