Misplaced Pages

Ben Butler (footballer)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
English footballer

Ben Butler
Personal information
Full name Albert Victor Butler
Place of birth Reading, England
Date of death (1916-05-13)13 May 1916 (aged 29)
Place of death Bruay-la-Buissière, France
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Position(s) Centre half
Youth career
0000–1908 Woolwich Arsenal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (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 Butler (died 13 May 1916), known as Ben Butler, was an English professional footballer who played as a centre half in the Southern League for Reading.

Personal life

Butler supplemented his football income by working as an engine cleaner for the South East Railway Company. During the First World War, he served as a corporal in the 1st Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. On 3 May 1916, Butler was wounded in the right leg by a shell during urban combat in Liévin, France. The leg was subsequently amputated and he died as a result 10 days later at No.22 Casualty Clearing Station in Bruay-la-Buissière. Butler left a widow, Kate and two sons and was buried in Bruay Communal Cemetery Extension. Butler's will, in which he left everything to Kate, survives and is in the archives of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service.

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Hartlepools United 1912–13 North Eastern League 25 1 1 0 — 26 1
Queens Park Rangers 1913–14 Southern League First Division 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
1914–15 Southern League First Division 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
Total 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0
Career total 25 1 1 0 2 0 28 1
  1. ^ Appearance in London Challenge Cup

Honours

Reading

References

  1. ^ "Casualty Details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 9 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Royals Remember Ben". Reading FC | Home of the Royals!. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  3. ^ 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. ^ 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.
Flag of EnglandSoccer icon

This biographical article related to association football in England, about a midfielder born in the 1880s, is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: