Middle East Centre Archive

Charles Butt Project

The Middle East Centre Archive is pleased to announce that the Anglo-Omani Society has awarded the Archive a grant of £3,598.52 for the Charles Butt Project. The Middle East Centre Archive wishes to thank the Anglo-Omani Society for funding the Charles Butt Project and also for all the support given in helping to establish the Oman Archive.

The Charles Butt Project is a preservation and digitisation project. The project consists of repackaging the entire Charles Butt Photographic Collection in Archival packaging, cataloguing (typing up all the captions and dates written on the slides), scanning the Oman slides (7,143 items), printing contact sheets (to enable easy browsing of images) and making a selection of 200 of the best Oman images available online as a photo gallery.

The Charles Butt Photographic Collection constitutes a Collection of outstanding excellence consisting of over 10,000 35mm colour slides covering Charles Butt’s life and service in the Middle East. The majority of the slides (7,143 items) are of Oman. The Collection is exceptional as Charles Butt was a keen amateur photographer (and member of the Royal Photographic Society) so the images are well composed. Charles Butt also meticulously labelled all his slides with captions and dates. The breadth of subjects and places covered in his Oman slides are also remarkable including for example images of Muscat, Mutrah, Bustan, Watayah, Qurum, Sib, Sohar, Aswad, Jebal Akhdar, Sumail, Nizwa, Bahlah, Buraimi, Massandam, Dhofar, Sib as well as slides of important personalities, SAF officers and soldiers, aircraft and warships.

Charles Butt served as a Major in the Sultan’s Armed Forces from 1966-1978. He was initially Station Staff Officer administering 1500 men. He then commanded the desert Advanced Base supporting operation forces on the hills and borders, before being transferred to the Gendarmerie, where he acted as Squadron Commander. He was promoted to Force Welfare Officer and subsequently became Deputy Joint Services Welfare Officer, Ministry of Defence.

Charles Butt Oman Photo Gallery

The following selection of 25 images are from the Charles Butt Photographic Collection. Upon completion of the Charles Butt Project a more extensive gallery of 200 images will be made available online.

Charles Butt Oman 10	Charles Butt Oman 1267
Dhofar. Jasmin 2. Sultan Qaboss Said and Major Geoffrey Williams, O.G.OC Blue Force, 10 Feb 1975	Sib. H.M. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, 26 Aug 1970
Charles Butt Oman 1264	Charles Butt Oman 1255
Sib Airstrip. Minister of Interior, Sultan Qaboos Defence Secretary CSAF, 26 Aug 1970	Sib. Crowd lining route, 26 Aug 1970
Charles Butt Oman 60	Charles Butt Oman 3138
Sib. Omani Elders/Judges, 24 Jul	Massandam. Ras Shayk Masoud. Smaller MSU helped by tow, 3 Nov 1972
Charles Butt Oman 77	Charles Butt Oman 101
Muscat. Khor Beach. Fort Mirani, Fishing Canoes and Mango Boats, 23 Jun 1970	Fort Mirani – General view of saluting battery. Guns are British, Feb, 1967
Charles Butt Oman 312	Charles Butt Oman 2158
Towards Bab Al Kebir and South East of Muscat, Dec 1966	Saiq Jebal Akhdar (6900 ASL) Landrover and typical plateau scenery, 27 Sept 1977
Charles Butt Oman 2161	Charles Butt Oman 2167
Jebel Akhdar. Wadi Muadin from near Shurayjah, 25 Jan 1976	Jebel Akhdar. Shurayjah village houses and garden terraces, 27 Sept 1977
Charles Butt Oman 475	Charles Butt Oman 476
Mutrah Suq. Boys selling “Tasties”, Mar 1967	Mutrah. Vegetable Suq stall proprietor and customers, 6 Dec 1968
Charles Butt Oman 6453	Charles Butt Oman 6462
Midway. Dhofar. 426 S/Sgt Salim Ali Abdullah Mamari, OC, 14 Apr 1970	Qathira Dhofar. 497 Cpl Suleman Suraymi, Salim Al Oman Gendarmerie, 22 Jan 1970

Charles Butt Oman 11	Charles Butt Oman 63	Charles Butt Oman 25
H.M. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, 10 Feb 1975	Defected Rebel Sheikh Hafeeth bin Abdullah bin Salmin al Ruwas, 30 Sept 1970	Sayyid Abbas Bin Faisal uncle of Sultan,22 Dec 1969
Charles Butt Oman 3123	Charles Butt Oman 3124	Charles Butt Oman 3127
Massandam. Harf Shihu Girl, 21 Jan 1973	Massandam. Harf Shihu mother and child, 21 Jan 1973	Massandam. Harf young Shihu wife, 21 Jan 1973
Charles Butt Oman 6434	Charles Butt Oman 6445	Charles Butt Oman 6490
Bukha.Talib Salim Hamdan Al Hathrami. 2 TP A SQN OG, 24 Aug 1971	Midway.397 l/CPL Ali Khamis 1 Troop, Oman Gendarmerie, 19 Jun 1969	Midway. 3204 L/Cpl (Sig) Ali Mohd on C/W on WS 19IN Sig Cen. 22 Aug 1969