Henry Montagu Butler

Montagu Butler
Caricature by Hay in Vanity Fair
Born	(1833-07-02)2 July 1833 Gayton, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom
Died	14 January 1918(1918-01-14) (aged 84) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Occupation	Headmaster, academic
Spouse(s)	Georgina Elliot Agnata Frances Ramsay
Parent(s)	Very Rev. George Butler
Relatives	George Butler (brother)

Henry Montagu Butler (called Montagu; 2 July 1833 – 14 January 1918) was an English academic.

He was the son of a previous Headmaster of Harrow School, George Butler and his wife Sarah Maria (née Gray). Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he married Georgina Elliot in 1861. He married his second wife in 1888, a very young Agnata Frances Ramsay who in 1887 attained the highest marks in the Classical Tripos at Cambridge. He had two sons and three daughters by his first wife, and three more sons by his second wife including the historian Sir James Butler. A talented and versatile Latinist, Butler achieved fame as one of the most adept British composers of Latin (and Greek) verse in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Similarly to his father he served as headmaster of Harrow (1859 to 1885). He was then appointed Dean of Gloucester Cathedral in 1885 and was also Master of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1886 to 1918, Vice Chancellor of the University, 1889–1890. As headmaster, he influenced many young people, including Stanley Baldwin (Prime Minister), Lord Davidson (Archbishop of Canterbury), Galsworthy of the Forsyte Saga, 10 bishops including Bishop Gore, 17 judges, 4 viceroys, 12 governors, 12 ambassadors, 33 privy councillors, and 64 generals. He changed Harrow from a hide-bound and backward seventeenth century institution to a rebuilt and well-equipped contemporary school. He wrote one hymn, Lift up your hearts! We lift them, Lord, to thee in 1881. He died in Cambridge on 14 January 1918.