Butler was working as an architect when the Second World War broke out. He became a conscientious objector, and spent the war years working as a blacksmith and repairing farm equipment. At the end of the war he resolved to become a sculptor. His first works were strongly influenced by Henry Moore, especially the older sculptor's Three Standing Figures, 1948 in Battersea Park, London. Butler's early sculptures, culminating in the The Unknown Political Prisoner, 1952, are predominantly linear in conception. They were often forged in iron, drawing on his skills as a blacksmith. The oval shape in the present sculpture figures frequently in other works of this period, and reflects the influence of West African masks and sculpture.