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Christopher John Butcher was born in North Adelaide on 20th April 1942. He was the second child and eldest son of Clarence W Butcher, a public servant, and his wife, Elizabeth, nee McCormick. He has two younger brothers. Butcher grew up in Hawthorn, South Australia, and was educated at Unley High School, where his interests included football, tennis, cricket and swimming. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide and graduated MB BS in 1967. He had played in the under 21 South Australian State Rugby team.  Colonel Donald Beard spoke about the army and the undergraduate scheme to the medical students in 4th year, in 1964, and, as a consequence, Butcher and five others took advantage of the scheme and joined the army. These included Bruce Perks, John Bickmore, John Crozier, Richard Lippett and Geoffrey Vercoe. Dick Willis joined the RAN and Peter Green the RAAF. Butcher married Helen Anne Richardson in 1966. They had 3 sons; Mark, Tim and Sam. Butcher was initially attached to AUR, completed his studies and his resident medical officer year at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Captain Butcher underwent Army and RAAMC training at Healesville, Victoria, and Canungra, Queensland, early in 1968 before being posted to South Vietnam in April of that year. He was the first of the graduates from the undergraduate scheme to serve in Vietnam. Initially he spent two weeks with 1st Aust Fd Hosp in Vung Tau and then was posted to 8 FdAmb at Nui Dat under the command of Major William Brian (Digger) James MC. Butcher retains the greatest respect for ‘Digger’ James. Several fire support bases (FSB) were established when 1st Australian Task Force deployed two battalions to disrupt enemy forces withdrawing from Saigon north of Bien Hoa city.  Two FSBs, Coral and Balmoral were heavily attacked and several Australian soldiers were killed and wounded. After the conflict at Coral and Balmoral, Butcher was posted to 3RAR for six months to replace Captain Dick Lippett who was wounded for the second time and was repatriated to Australia. Butcher recalls that during this time three of his rifle company medics were wounded, two of them twice; one was decorated with a Military Medal. After six months with 3RAR Butcher was posted to 8 FdAmb and relieved the regimental medical officers of 1 RAR and 4 RAR. During his posting in Vietnam Butcher recalls participating in a number of hot extractions. He returned to Australia in May 1969. His next posting was to be seconded to the Royal Air Force, Far East Land Forces, in Singapore, and subsequently to 28th  Commonwealth Brigade, then to Malaya and then to Nee Soon, Singapore. Finally he spent 12 months as a surgical trainee at the British Military Hospital in Singapore. He was promoted to major, in 1971, and left the army in 1972 to join the army reserves. However he had to resign during his advanced orthopaedic training as the regular Tuesday evening training clashed with the teaching program. He was issued with the Australian Active Service Medal 1945-75, the General Service Medal, the Australian Defence Medal and the Vietnam Medal.

Butcher returned to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 1972 to continue training in orthopaedic surgery. He completed his primary FRACS examination and travelled to the United Kingdom where he completed four years of advanced training, particularly in joint replacement surgery, at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester before returning to Australia at the beginning of 1979. He was appointed to the Senior Visiting Medical Staff as an Orthopaedic surgeon, with a particular interest in joint replacement, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he remained on staff for 30 years and at the Repatriation General Hospital, where he remained on staff for eighteen years and resigned when the hospital was integrated with Flinders Medical Centre. At both hospitals he was the head of the orthopaedic unit. He also worked in the private sector.  He retired from medical practice in 2009 to manage a family property in NSW for two years. His family have owned outside and inside sheep and cattle properties in New England, NSW. 

Sources

Blood, Sweat and Fears II: Medical Practitioners of South Australia on Active Service After World War 2 to Vietnam 1945-1975.

Summers, Swain, Jelly, Verco. Open Book Howden, Adelaide 2016

Uploaded by Annette Summers AO RFD