Ben Butler (footballer)

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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
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) [2]
Position(s) Centre half
Youth career
–1908 Woolwich Arsenal
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1908–1912 Reading
1912–1913 Hartlepools United 25 (1)
1913–1916 Queens Park Rangers 0 (0)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

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

Contents

Personal life

Butler supplemented his football income by working as an engine cleaner for the South East Railway Company. [3] During the First World War, he served as a corporal in the 1st Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. [4] On 3 May 1916, Butler was wounded in the right leg by a shell during urban combat in Liévin, France. [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]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
ClubSeasonLeagueFA CupOtherTotal
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Hartlepools United 1912–13 [6] North Eastern League 25110—261
Queens Park Rangers 1913–14 [7] Southern League First Division00001 [a] 010
1914–15 [8] Southern League First Division00001 [a] 010
Total00002020
Career total2511020281
  1. 1 2 Appearance in London Challenge Cup

Honours

Reading

References

  1. 1 2 "Casualty Details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission . Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "Royals Remember Ben". Reading FC | Home of the Royals!. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  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. ↑ "Albert Butler". In The Mad Crowd. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "Seasonal Stats – Files – 1913–14". QPRnet. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  8. ↑ "Seasonal Stats – Files – 1914–15". QPRnet. Retrieved 27 November 2017.


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