Ben Butler

Ben Butler
Personal information
Full name Albert Victor Butler[1]
Place of birth Reading, England
Date of death (1916-05-13)13 May 1916 (aged 29)[2]
Place of death Bruay-la-Buissière, France
Playing position Centre half
Youth career
Woolwich Arsenal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
0000–1912 Reading
1912–1913 Hartlepools United 25 (1)
1913–1916 Queens Park Rangers 0 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Albert Victor Butler (died 13 May 1916), known as Ben Butler, was an English professional football centre half who played in the Southern League for Reading.[3]

Personal life

Butler supplemented his football income by working as an engine cleaner for the South East Railway Company.[3] He served in the First World War with the 17th (Service) Battalion Middlesex Regiment, also known as the First Football Battalion.[4] On 3 May 1916, his right leg was badly wounded by shelling at Cité de Calonne, west of Lens.[5] The leg was subsequently amputated and he died as a result 10 days later at No.22 Casualty Clearing Station in Bruay-la-Buissière.[3] Butler left a widow, Kate and two sons and was buried in Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension.[1][2][4] Butler's will, in which he left everything to Kate, survives and is in the archives of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service.[4]

Honours

Reading

Career statistics

Club Season League FA Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Hartlepools United 1912–13[6] North Eastern League 25 1 1 0 — 26 1
Queens Park Rangers 1913–14[7] Southern League First Division 0 0 0 0 1[lower-alpha 1] 0 1 0
1914–15[8] 0 0 0 0 1[lower-alpha 1] 0 1 0
Total 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0
Career total 25 1 1 0 2 0 28 1

References

  1. 1 2 Manchester, Reading Room. "Casualty Details". www.cwgc.org. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Reading remembers those players who were killed in the First World War". www.readingfc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Riddoch, Andrew; Kemp, John; Holmes, Richard (20 November 2008). When the Whistle Blows: The Story of the Footballers' Battalion in the Great War (1st ed.). Sparkford: Haynes Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 9781844256563.
  4. 1 2 3 Lee, Matt (29 August 2013). "World War I soldier wills digitised for online archive". BBC Online. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
  5. ↑ "VISITING THE WESTERN FRONT: 2" (PDF). pp. 4–5. Retrieved 2 December 2017.
  6. ↑ "In The Mad Crowd". www.inthemadcrowd.co.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "QPRnet – Seasonal Stats – Files – 1913–14". Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  8. ↑ "QPRnet – Seasonal Stats – Files – 1914–15". Retrieved 27 November 2017.
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