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Robert Bruce Holgate Butler (29 October 1924 – 11 May 2014) Obituary

 

R B H  BUTLER (Common Room 1957-85)

Bob Butler, former Head of Art at Haileybury, passed away on 11th May 2014 in Bradford-on-Avon.

Bob’s studies at Maidstone School of Art were interrupted by WW2, during which time he served with the Royal Navy on HMS Newfoundland during the final battles against the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Bob then taught at UCS and at Berkhamsted School before coming to Haileybury in 1957. The Art School at that time was a room behind the stage in Bradby with facilities for 12 pupils in cramped conditions with poor light. Bob was instrumental in the design of the new Art School which was opened in 1963 by Clement Attlee, and is the building which we all know today. He introduced ceramics, design and calligraphy to the art curriculum, and began the Speech Day exhibitions as a showcase of the pupils’ creative talent, a tradition which survives to this day. Bob was also a member of the Royal Navy section of the CCF, a keen sailor and was actively involved with creating and decorating stage sets for many Haileybury productions.

The Society sends its condolences to his widow Janet, and his daughters.

 

Robert Bruce Holgate Butler (29 October 1924 – 11 May 2014)

Bob Butler was Head of Art for 28 years, from September 1957 to July 1985, by far the longest reign over art in Haileybury’s history., easily exceeding the 16 years of Delmar Morgan and the 15 years of Wilfred Blunt.

Bob was born in East Sussex and grew up in Tenterden in Kent with his parents and elder sister Beryl. He went to Ashford Grammar School and then to Maidstone College of Art, but broke off this course in 1943 to join the Royal Navy. He because Sub Lieutenant and saw active service with HMS Newfoundland as a gunnery office off the coasts of China and Japan. Part of his training involved a course in navigation, and in the exam on this he finished with his ship positioned in the middle of the Sahara – never his strong point, he failed navigation! But on this ship he became an effective and well liked officer.

When Bob started at Haileybury, art was taught in the rather cramped and very unsatisfactory rooms at the top of Bradby, so in due course he presided over the design of the present Art School, opened by Clement Attlee in 1965, and the appointment in 1966 of an assistant art master, with special responsibility for ceramics. Under Bob’s guidance these two developments transformed the teaching of art at Haileybury. Bob’s approach as a teacher was to allow talent to flower and to a considerable extent to choose its own path, and under his gentle supervision the quality, variety and life of the work produced was impressive.

Unlike a number of art and music teachers of his era, Bob was happy to contribute as fully as he could to other aspects of school life.  For his first ten years he was a mainstay of the Naval Section of the CCF. Also for a number of years he ran the school end of public examinations with the London Board, he was master in charge of bicycles – in those days an unrewarding but necessary task and he helped with the sailing.

While teaching at Berkhamsted, Bob stayed at the house of a senior colleague and his wife, and in 1956 he married their daughter Janet. In due course they were blessed with daughters Susie, Anne and Jenny, and Bob was a very devoted and domestically willing husband and father. A year after Bob’s retirement he and Janet moved to Bradford-on-Avon, near Janet’s mother and other relations and friends, and they became active members of the community and the church. Bob had done very little of his own painting while at Haileybury, beyond painting the set for Pastimes, the annual staff Christmas play, often completing the job about 3am on the day of the first performance; but in retirement he resumed in a big way, painting portraits and landscapes, and joining a local group of enthusiastic amateurs, whose inspired leader in due course he became. He also gave active support for fundraising for the Samaritans, the local museum and the committee of the local ‘Arts Association’, which organised monthly talks. So he and Janet enjoyed a long, happy and productive retirement.

I end by quoting a few phrases from the conclusion of Janet’s brother’s address at Bob’s Thanksgiving Service: ‘Bob liked people and was always welcoming…. did not take himself too seriously…often completely scatty……unphased about it….. He had a zest for life and a lovely sense of humour that survived the frustrations of the last illness’. (this was a brain tumour)

Bob was much loved by his family and was held in great affection by his many friends

John Chick, much aided by material from Janet and her brother

Originally Written: 23-Dec-2014 13:17, Last Updated: 12-Mar-2015 14:34