Tony Butcher

Before he embarked on a medical career, Tony Butcher enjoyed a brief, but successful rowing career. He was educated at the City of London school, before going to Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he became a rowing Blue in 1947, when the Cambridge eight beat Oxford by 10 lengths. The following year, Butcher was a member of the Thames Rowing Club eight that won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley, and he followed that by competing in the coxless fours at the London Olympics. In 1949 Butcher won the coveted Silver Goblets at Henley with Tom Christie, beating fellow Thames men, R. C. Morris and Alan Burrough. In the five weeks prior to Henley, Butcher and Christie also won the pairs title at both the Chiswick and Marlow Regattas.

Butcher was a member of the England eight at the 1950 British Empire Games in Auckland that won the bronze medal. In 1952 he came close to regaining the Silver Goblets, but, with new partner Peter Kirkpatrick, lost in the semi-final.