Cadbury’s dark secret: How founder’s war hero great-grandson imported drugs to 1920s Britain

The war hero great-grandson of the founder of Cadbury’s chocolate was a convicted drug smuggler, it can now be revealed.

Richard Cadbury Butler made thousands importing narcotics into 1920s Britain until he was caught with a pound of cocaine stashed in a chocolate box, leading to a spell in prison.

However, in court he went by his father’s name, Butler, and after leaving jail was shipped off to Jersey to avoid further disgrace to the family name. 

Thanks to these efforts the dark secret of one of the most respected business dynasties in Britain has remained largely unknown until now.

Cadbury Butler was the great-grandson of John Cadbury, who founded the chocolate company in 1824, which went onto become a British icon before its controversial takeover by US food giant Mondelez International in 2016.

His dark secret was uncovered by author John Lucas in his new book Dope Kings of London: Brilliant Chang, Eddie Manning, and the Secret History of the First War on Drugs.

The book – which makes use of new archive research – investigates Britain’s first drug dealers who proliferated after cocaine and opiates were criminalised in 1920.

It tells of Richard’s early career at the heart of the Cadbury chocolate empire, his service with the Royal Flying Corps in WWI, and then a near-fatal accident and subsequent break-up that put him on the path to prison. 

The 1920 Dangerous Drugs Act criminalised a range of narcotics including cocaine, heroin and opium, which had previously been legal for medical purposes.

But because many of these drugs were still being produced in European factories it was easy for smugglers like Richard Cadbury Butler to obtain supplies.

However, there was little in Richard’s early life to point towards his future infamy.

He was born in April 1898, the son of Arnold Butler, a magistrate and social reformer, and Edith Cadbury. 

Edith was the daughter of the late Richard Barrow Cadbury, the second son of the chocolate company’s founder John Cadbury.

Richard and his brother George took over the business in 1861, and soon dramatically increased the profits as they started importing cocoa beans.

In 1905, the company launched Dairy Milk – in its distinctive purple wrapper – with vastly more milk than previous chocolates. It was an immediate success.  

Richard’s father Arnold was a leading light in Birmingham’s civic society, where the chocolate company was based.

From a young age Richard was very ill, he suffered from St Vitus’s Dance.

This was a condition that caused involuntary nervous shaking of the hands and face, and was usually brought on by rheumatic fever.

He was sent to Tanzania for school aged 17, where it was hoped the African climate would cure his ‘nerves’.

On the outbreak of war, Richard first joined the artillery and fought in Ireland before volunteering with the Royal Flying Corps, the forerunner to the RAF.

He attained the rank of captain, but suffered a horrific accident in 1918 when his plane caught fire and plummeted in a field.

He spent five months in hospital while doctors pieced his jaw back together with silver and ivory, and almost all of his teeth had to be replaced.

After the war, Richard met and married a Leeds-born actress, Mary ‘Queenie’ Hall, and also tried to get involved with several failed business projects.

At this time – during the Roaring Twenties – cocaine would have been a regular fixture in London nightlife.

Upper class men like Richard, who frequented the West End, would certainly have had access to it.

‘It sounded like he had quite a few female friends,’ Lucas said. ‘He had at least one male friend who he spent weekends with.

‘He wasn’t always faithful to his wife, but his military service was impeccable.’

Eventually Queenie left him for a mysterious Belgian man called Leon Cornelis.

Hoping to reconcile with his wife, Richard went into business with Cornelis and took the modern day equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds out of the family trust.

It later turned out that Cornelis was involved in the cocaine trade, and when he died of a lung condition Richard took over his smuggling operation. 

He was busted in 1926, after an undercover sting at a notorious Covent Garden café.

Almost one pound of cocaine was found – ironically – hidden in a Cadbury’s chocolate tin.

As the only newspaper report of the next day’s court case read: ‘A tin containing a little less than a pound of cocaine, worth about £400, at a rate of £25 per ounce asked for it, was mentioned by the police in evidence at Marlborough-street Police Court yesterday.’

Richard got just four months in prison and the name Cadbury was not mentioned, much to the family’s relief.

However that was enough for the illustrious family and they shipped him off to Jersey, where he lived for the rest of his life.

In 1931, Cadbury had its joint centenary with Bourneville based around the opening of its first factory.

Every living family member – more than 100 people – posed for a photo.

Except Richard.

He had been erased from the family history, and for almost 100 years they had kept hidden their dirty secret.

‘It’s quite sad as he seemed like quite a decent guy in terms of what he volunteered to do during the war,’ Lucas said.

‘He was a pioneering pilot for the RAF. But they were obviously so ashamed of what he had done that they just packed him off and never spoke to him again.

‘In the interview process with the cops, his father said when Richard is out it is my intention to send him to live abroad. Which he obviously followed through on.’

Despite the ongoing successes of the chocolate dynasty – it was sold in 2010 for £11.5 billion – Richard Cadbury Butler was never heard of again.

MailOnline contacted Cadbury’s new owners, Mondelez International, to ask if they would like to comment. They declined.