FACING DEATH GALLANTLY

Southland Times, Issue 17654, 11 February 1916, Page 2

FACING DEATH GALLANTLY

BRAVE WANGANUI MASTER. LAST LETTERS FROM FRONT. THOUGHTS IN FIRING LINE. Several interesting letters from the late Captain Hugh Butterworth, of the 9th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade, formerly a master at Wanganui Collegiate School, are published in the school magazine. Captain Butterworth fell in action on September 25. He was leading his men against the Germans at the time, and, in the words of his colonel, he “showed the most conspicuous courage and coolness.” Writing in July Captain Butterworth said :—“I am not particularly afraid of death, but I dislike the thought of dying, because I enjoy life so much, and I want to enjoy it a lot more. This dugout life gives one plenty of time to think, I tell you, and the danger is, one gets down to. a minor key, and stays there. I feel I’ve expiated every crime I’ve ever committed. I fancy that when we warriors fetch up at the final inquiry they’ll ask ‘ Where did you perform ?’ We shall reply ‘Ypres salient.’ They’ll answer, ‘ Pass friend,’ and we shall stroll along to the sound of trumpets and sackbuts.” Writing in August : “Perhaps, as you study English papers, you imagine us in the trenches with a continual smile on our face. I assure you that is not always the case. I've seen fear in the faces of almost, all a company, and I’ve felt my own inside go wrong, and heard the voice of the tempter saying,; ‘ Now, Butterworth, old son, that’s the spot for you; if you’re rushed, you'll be near the exit door, and be able to fall back. At those times the only thing to do is to take oneself by the neck and get right into the heart of things, swarm about and cheer up the men, and generally restore your own confidence —in yourself. I know exactly what fear feels like at two o’clock in the morning."

Writing about September 20—his last letter : “Of course, one has been facing death pretty intimately for months now, but with this ahead one must realise that, in the venacuiar of New, Zealand, one’s numbers are probably up. We are not a sentimental crowd at the Collegiate School, Wanganui, but I think in a letter of this sort one can say how . .

. . I am very much attached to the school, and to Selwyn in particular. Live long and prosper, all of you. Curiously enough, I don’t doubt my power to stick it out, and I think my men will follow me.”

His friends, says the Wanganui Collegian, are sure that his men followed him, and in those words he has penned his own best praise. Hugh Butterworth was a leader and inspirer of boys, who became a leader and inspirer of men fighting in a great cause.