George Butler (1819–1890)

The Reverend Canon George Butler (11 June 1819 – 14 March 1890) was an English divine and schoolmaster.

Born in Harrow in 1819, Butler was from a family that had great educational influence in the 19th Century, more than that of Arnold of Rugby. His father the Very Rev. George Butler Snr had left Cambridge as a senior wrangler and later became headmaster of Harrow School and Dean of Peterborough. His brother the Very Reverend Henry Montagu Butler followed his fathers footsteps and also became headmaster of Harrow School, later becoming Dean of Gloucester Cathedral. Another brother, the Rev. Arthur Grey Butler, became headmaster of Haileybury on its re-opening as a public school in 1862.

Butler was educated at Harrow School; Trinity College, Cambridge; and Exeter College, Oxford.

Butler, date unknown

In 1842 Butler became a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He was appointed a professor at Durham University in 1848, returning to Oxford as a lecturer in 1850. Later he was a housemaster at Cheltenham College, and he became Principal of Liverpool College in 1865. Liverpool College's academic performance improved, with six open scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge by 1869. On 28 January 1870 it was announced that "a Liverpool boy had for the first time won the most coveted award at Cambridge or any other University" – this was Richard Pendlebury, Senior Wrangler in 1870.

In 1882 Butler retired from Liverpool College, when appointed a canon of Winchester Cathedral. Butler died in London on 14 March 1890, and was buried in the cemetery at Winchester.

He was married to Josephine Butler, the social reformer. She survived him, and published in 1892 Recollections of George Butler. He left several children.