George Butler (schoolmaster)

The Reverend Canon George Butler (1819–1890) was an English divine and schoolmaster.

Background

Born in Harrow in 1819, Butler was from a family that had great educational influence in the 19th Century, more than that of Arnold of Rugby. His father the Very Rev. George Butler Snr had left Cambridge as a senior wrangler and later became headmaster of Harrow School and Dean of Peterborough. His brother the Very Reverend Henry Montagu Butler followed his fathers footsteps and also became headmaster of Harrow School, later becoming Dean of Gloucester Cathedral. His other brother, the Rev. Arthur Grey Butler became headmaster of Haileybury on its re-opening as a public school in 1862.

Career

In 1842 became a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford and later housemaster at Cheltenham College and Principal of Liverpool College in 1865. It was under Butler's Principalship that saw the College's most distinguished academic performance to date. By 1869 Butler had secured 6 open scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge. On 28 January 1870 it was announced that "a Liverpool boy had for the first time won the most coveted award at Cambridge or any other University".^[1] This boy's name was Richard Pendlebury, a College boy and a Senior Wrangler. The academic excellence of the College under Butler did not stop here, Andrew Forsyth also became a Senior Wrangler in 1881. Throughout the history of Liverpool College it has never seen the same Oxford and Cambridge success as in Butlers time.

Butler died in London on 14 March 1890, and was buried in the cemetery at Winchester.^[2]

Personal life

He was married to Josephine Butler, the famous social reformer.

She survived him, and published in 1892 Recollections of George Butler, Bristol, 8vo. He left several children.^[2]

References

1. Liverpool Gentlemen, Wainwright, D., Faber 1960
2. Carlyle 1901.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Carlyle, Edward Irving (1901). "Butler, George (1819-1890)". In Sidney Lee. Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​. London: Smith, Elder & Co.