Hugh Butterworth

Hugh Montagu Butterworth (1 November 1885 – 25 September 1915) was an English first-class cricketer and a school teacher in New Zealand who was killed in action in World War I. Life in England Hugh Butterworth was the first child of George Montagu Butterworth (12 May 1858 – 12 December 1941) and his wife Catherine (née Warde). After Hugh, five daughters followed. George was a solicitor and a tennis player who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 1880. Hugh was educated at Marlborough and at University College, Oxford. In mid-May 1906 he played two first-class matches for the university team in 1906 as an opening batsman, then, two days later, one match for Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against the Oxford team, when he made his highest score, 31. He also represented Oxford at Rugby union, hockey and rackets. He played several matches for Wiltshire from 1904 to 1906, mostly in the Minor Counties competition, scoring 122 against Dorset in 1905 and 106 in a victory over MCC in 1906. A few weeks before Butterworth's final exams in 1907 his family ran into financial difficulties and his father decided to move to New Zealand, where he settled in Cashmere Hills, Christchurch. Hugh and the rest of the family soon joined him, so Hugh was never able to complete his studies.