The final penalty from the Minlaton crash had yet to be paid, and after a pleasant evening dining at the R.S.L. Club on July 29th, Harry Butler went home to bed for the last time.

The following day an unsuspected cerebral abscess burst, and the merciful end came in a few short hours.

His funeral on July 31st in Adelaide was a hugely attended and moving ceremony. He had brought a new and exciting experience into the lives of many South Australian people in the brief three years of his active career as an aviator and airman extraordinary, and suddenly, with his tragic death, they were well aware of it. Thousands came to pay silent tribute to a man who had captured the public imagination and made himself a legend in his own time.