George Stephen Butler (16 December 1900 at

Marlborough, Wiltshire Marlborough ( , ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the England, English Counties of England, county of Wiltshire on the A4 road (England), Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath, Somerset, Bath. Th ...

– 21 September 1969 at

Kingswear Kingswear is a village and civil parish in the South Hams area of the English county of Devon. The village is located on the east bank of the tidal River Dart, close to the river's mouth and opposite the small town of Dartmouth. It lies within ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

), played first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

for

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in one match in 1920 and

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

from 1920 to 1939. While appearing for Wiltshire, he also played in seven first-class matches, mostly for teams representing the Minor Counties as a whole against touring sides in the 1930s. Educated at

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

, Butler was a right-handed opening or middle order batsman. He bowled only seven overs in first-class cricket, and his bowling style is not known, but in Minor Counties cricket he was a fairly regular bowler in his early career, sometimes opening the bowling for Wiltshire. His one match for Somerset came against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1920, and he made only seven and two in a low-scoring match that was over inside two days. That was the limit of his first-class county cricket, but in 1927, having played regularly for Wiltshire, he appeared in a second first-class match, this time for a team representing "The West" against the New Zealand touring side. Butler opened the batting and scored six. His next first-class appearance was much more successful: playing for the Minor Counties against a team representing Wales in 1930, he scored 121, and this was to be his only first-class century. The Wales team consisted mainly of

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cricketers, but also included

Sydney Barnes Sydney Francis Barnes (19 April 1873 – 26 December 1967) was an English professional cricketer who is regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. He was right-handed and bowled at a pace that varied from medium to fast-medium with ...

, whose penultimate first-class match this was. ''

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' reported that Butler hit a six, a five and 15 fours and "played most enterprising cricket". First-class matches between the teams touring England and representative Minor Counties teams became commonplace through the 1930s except in seasons when Australian teams were the tourists and Butler played in five consecutive games: in 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937 and 1939. He made more than 50 in three innings in these matches, with a top score of 84 in the 1935 match against the

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Outside cricket

Butler was headmaster of Winchester Lodge preparatory school at

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

in Devon and captained the local cricket club there.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, George 1900 births 1969 deaths People educated at Marlborough College English cricketers Somerset cricketers Wiltshire cricketers Devon cricketers Minor Counties cricketers West of England cricketers People from Marlborough, Wiltshire Cricketers from Wiltshire