Information taken from Postcards Tourism TV show - The Red Devil - The Legendary Airman: Minlation Airport Display, Yorke Peninsula From a poor farming kid from Minlaton to a World War One flying instructor, Harry Butler was destined to soar above the others. As a twenty six-year-old he paid his own way to England in 1916 to join the Royal Flying Corps and within months was flying over France. Harry was awarded the Air Force Cross but returned to Australia after receiving a head wound in active service. He made his way back to the peninsula with an AVRO Bi-plane and his beloved plane, the Red Devil. Soon he was up and away pulling crowds at his barnstorming displays at fairs around the State. He made a name for himself on August 6th, 1919 when Harry Butler, the local Minlaton lad, brought the Peninsula just that little bit closer to the outside world, flying the first airmail over water in the Southern Hemisphere. Throughout this famous flight Harry wore an inflated car tyre just in case he was forced to ditch the Red Devil in Gulf Saint Vincent. But not even a car tyre would save the day on January the 11th, 1922 when Harry Butler took his Avro Bi-plane for a flight over the wheat fields near Minlaton. "It would appear that they were about fourteen hundred feet up and the engine seized. They ploughed into the ground. Absolutely disintegrated. He suffered extensive injuries around the face particularly on one side of the face. He had numerous operations." Harry never recovered fully and died eighteen months later.