Image of Jesus College war memorial

Harry Alfred Butt, Captain, Gloucestershire Regiment

Harry Alfred Butt came up to Jesus College in 1887 from Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire.

Born: Harpenden, Hertfordshire in 1868

Fell in action: 8 June 1916

Butt got his BA by the Classical Tripos I in 1890 but very little else is known about him.

There is one reference to his participation in Michaelmas term trial eights (Chanticlere Lent Term 1888). Despite being in the winning boat of six, he seems to have decided that the river was not for him, as he does not make any further appearance in boat club race records.

The Jesus College Society Annual Report 1916 obituary for him, which is copied directly from The Times newspaper, says that he became a master at Clifton College in Bristol in 1908. He also seems to have been a master at Framlingham College and he is remembered on their online war memorial.

At the outbreak of the war he joined the OTC and from there was commissioned in April 1915 to the 11th Gloucestershire Regiment. He was then asked to assist in the training of another battalion (14th) and was promoted to captain in August 1915. He went to the front in early 1916 and was killed in action in France in June 1916.

The obituary finishes with a quote from a fellow officer: “He died, as he lived, a very gallant English gentleman” (pp18-19).

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