Private W. BUTLER (d.1897)

W. Butler was a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the Oxfordshire Light Infantry.

On 29 December 1898 pickets placed by the Oxfordshire Light Infantry at Ali Musjid were fired upon, and on 3 January 1898 The Times reported thus on the fighting:

Butler was shot in the leg and then shot dead a few yards further on when carrying the body of Corporal Bell down a ravine.

The Guardian of 5 January 1898 named Private W. Butler as one of the three men killed, along with Lance-Corporal W. Bell and Sergeant J. S. Hopkins, who are grouped with him on the memorial. (Sergeant-Major H. H. Dempsey who is listed just above them was badly injured and later died of his wounds.)

The Times of 3 February 1898 (p. 12) quotes a long extract of a letter from an officer describing in full detail what happened at Ali Musjid.