George Butterfield (athlete)
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 1879 Stockton-on-Tees, England |
| Died | 24 September 1917 (aged 38) near Ieper (Ypres), West-Vlaanderen, Belgium |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
| Event | middle-distance |
| Club | Darlington Harriers |
George Butterfield (April 1879 – 24 September 1917) was a British athlete running for Darlington Harriers. He ran the world's fastest mile in 1906 and competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London.[1]
Biography
[edit]Born in Stockton on Tees,[2] Butterfield became the National mile champion after winning the AAA Championships title at the 1905 AAA Championships.[3][4] He went on to successfully defend the title in both 1906[5] and 1907.[6][7][8]
Butterfield came in second in his semi-final heat in the 800 metres at the 1908 Olympic Games, with a time of 1:58.9.[9] His finish, while behind Ödön Bodor's, was ahead of defending champion James Lightbody's. Butterfield did not advance to the final.[10]
At the same Olympics, he also competed in the 1500 metres, placing third in his initial semifinal heat and not advancing to the final. Butterfield's time was 4:11.8; Mel Sheppard had set a new Olympic record at 4:05.0 in winning the heat and eliminating Butterfield and the other five runners.
Butterfield was killed in action during the First World War,[11] serving as a private with the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was buried in the Birr Cross Roads Cemetery.[12]
His obituary in the Northern Despatch recorded that he had once raced against a greyhound. The dog came second.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 3 February 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ George Butterfield Archived 1 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-01-19.
- ^ "Amateur Athletic Championships". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 3 July 1905. Retrieved 19 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "The Amateur Championships". Daily News (London). 4 July 1904. Retrieved 17 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Amateur Championships". Bristol Times and Mirror. 9 July 1906. Retrieved 20 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Champion athletes". Daily Record. 8 July 1907. Retrieved 22 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA Championships". Sporting Life. 8 July 1907. Retrieved 22 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Archive news from the Northern Echo".
- ^ "George Butterfield". Olympedia. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
- ^ "Olympians Who Were Killed or Missing in Action or Died as a Result of War". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
- ^ Butterfield, G, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Retrieved 28 September 2008
External links
[edit]- Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report. London: British Olympic Association.
- De Wael, Herman (2001). "Athletics 1908". Herman's Full Olympians. Archived from the original on 27 September 2006. Retrieved 27 July 2006.
- Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 27 July 2006.
- George Butterfield at Olympedia
- 1879 births
- 1917 deaths
- Military personnel from County Durham
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1908 Summer Olympics
- Olympic athletes for Great Britain
- Durham Light Infantry soldiers
- British military personnel killed in World War I
- Sportspeople from Darlington
- English male middle-distance runners
- British male middle-distance runners
- Sportspeople from Stockton-on-Tees
- Athletes from Yorkshire
- Royal Garrison Artillery soldiers
- British Army personnel of World War I