This year marked 70 years since Harrow hero, Roger Bannister ran a mile in just over three minutes and fifty nine seconds – smashing all records in the process.
While this remains an incredible achievement, Roger wasn’t the only Harrovian to impress in the sporting world and, in this article, we’re looking at Harrow’s lesser known Olympian – Guy Butler.
Born in Harrow on the 25th of August 1899, Guy Butler was the son of a Harrovian and Cambridge cricket scholar and the grandson of a Harrow School Headmaster and so it’s not surprising that he excelled at sports from an early age.
After attending Harrow School – where he won three Public School sports events – Roger went on to the Royal Military College before entering Trinity College Cambridge where he won the AAA 440 yards on his first attempt, briefly making him Britain’s leader quarter mile athlete.
While at university, Guy quickly became a relay star and dead-heated with Bevil Rudd in the Oxford vs Cambridge match in 1920 and coming second to the South African in the Olympic final.
Between 1920 and 1924, Guy Butler’s name became known with a 440 yard win against Oxford in 1921 and second places in the 1922 and 1923 AAA Championships.
Despite being forced to do standing starts due to a muscle injury, Guy set a European record of 48.0 seconds in the 400 metres during the 1924 Olympics and, by 1928, he became the first British track and field athlete to have competed in three Olympic Games.
Although he wouldn’t repeat his athletic success after 1925, he enjoyed a career as a teacher at Lancing College before going on to become an athletics journalist.
Guy Butler passed away in St Neots in 1981 at the age of 82 but leaves a lasting legacy for athletics – and for Harrow in the form of the annual Guy Butler Shield athletics competition held at Harrow School.
Guy shares the record for the number of athletic Olympic medals with Christine Ohurogu, Mo Farah and Sebastian Coe.
Nicci, born in Cumbria in 1971, moved to London at 17 to work for Mute Records. She has a diverse career spanning design, copywriting, and PR. Nicci is an author, freelance copywriter, and PR professional, with her own agency, Front Page Promotions. She covers historical stories for Harrow Online and has authored several books. She currently resides in Harrow, North West London
