George Butler (headmaster)

George Butler (5 July 1774 – 30 April 1853) was an English schoolmaster and Anglican priest, Headmaster of Harrow School from 1805 to 1829 and Dean of Peterborough from 1842 to his death in 1853.

The son of Weeden Butler (1742–1823), George Butler was educated at the Chelsea school where his father taught and proceeded to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he graduated senior wrangler in 1794 (M.A. 1797; B.D. 1804; D.D. (litterae regiae) 1805). He became a fellow of Sidney Sussex, first as mathematical lecturer, and afterwards as classical tutor. He was elected a public examiner of the university in 1804, and in the following year was one of the select preachers. As headmaster of Harrow School (1805–1829) his all-round knowledge, his tact and his skill as a track and field athlete rendered his administration successful and popular. On his retirement he settled down at Gayton, Northamptonshire, a living which had been presented to him by his college in 1814. In 1836 he became chancellor of the diocese of Peterborough, and in 1842 was appointed dean of Peterborough. His few publications include some notes of Harrow, entitled Harrow, a Selection of Lists of the School between 1770 and 1828 (Peterborough, 1849).

Butler and his wife Sarah Maria Gray had four sons and at least three daughters: