Sir Edward Gerald Butler (1770–1825) (named as Edward Gerard Butler in the Dictionary of National Biography) was a British soldier. Early in his military career, he was one of the heroes of a battle to save the Austrian emperor, for which he was knighted.
Butler entered the army by purchasing a cornetcy in the 15th light dragoons in 1792. He was sent to take part in the Flanders Campaign in 1793, which was part of the French Revolutionary Wars. On 24 April 1794 during the Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies, he was one of the officers of the two companies of his regiment which saved Emperor Francis II from being taken prisoner by a numerically superior French force. For their gallantry the emperor gave the eight English officers medals, and they later received the Military Order of Maria Theresa. At the emperor's request, the king of England knighted them all.
Butler had been promoted lieutenant in the 11th light dragoons in May 1794, and he was in 1796 gazetted major without purchase in the newly raised 87th regiment. With it he served in the West Indies in 1797 at Trinidad and Puerto Rico, and remained in garrison there till 1802. In 1804 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel, and in 1806 the 87th was ordered to form part of the British invasion force under Sir Samuel Auchmuty attacking Montevideo. In the attack on Montevideo Butler especially distinguished himself, and also in General Whitelocke's attempt to capture Buenos Aires, where the 87th had 17 officers and 400 men killed and wounded.
From 1807 to 1810, while the 2nd battalion, under Colonel Hugh Gough, was distinguishing itself in the Peninsula, the 1st battalion of the 87th, under Butler, garrisoned the Cape of Good Hope. In 1810 he was second in command of a force ordered from the Cape to assist Major-general Abercromby in the capture of Mauritius, but the island was already taken when the contingent arrived. Nevertheless, though he saw no more service, Butler was promoted colonel in 1811 and major-general in 1814, and made a C.B. in the latter year. He died in Normandy in June 1825.
"Butler, Edward Gerard". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.