Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Butlin, Henry Trentham
BUTLIN, Sir HENRY TRENTHAM, first baronet (1845-1912), surgeon, the fourth son of the Rev. William Wright Butlin, vicar of Penponds, Cornwall, by his wife, Julia Crowther Trentham, was born at Camborne 24 October 1845. He was educated at home until, at the age of nineteen, he went to London and entered as. a student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, having decided, like his paternal grandfather, to enter the medical profession. After qualification (1867) he had the good fortune to obtain the post of house surgeon to (Sir) James Paget [q.v.], and like many other pupils of that great surgeon Butlin was profoundly influenced by his example and teaching. After he had held the usual junior offices, he was elected an assistant surgeon to the Hospital in 1881, in due course was appointed full surgeon in 1892, and in 1897 a lecturer in surgery at the Hospital school. Many of his pupils retain a grateful recollection of Butlin’s clinical teaching, which was based upon a wide knowledge of morbid anatomy. He was never too busy to help a perplexed student. For twelve years he had charge of the throat department, and played a great part in its development, and in the advancement of British laryngology in general.
Besides St. Bartholomew’s and its school, other professional bodies and movements claimed Butlin’s services. He took much interest in the reconstructed university of London, and was the first dean of its faculty of medicine. He held in succession the offices of councillor, treasurer, and president of the British Medical Association, and in the last capacity he presided over the annual meeting held in London in 1910. After serving as councillor, he was elected in 1909 to the presidency of the Royal College of Surgeons, the blue ribbon of British surgery, but was compelled by failing health to resign that office shortly before his death. The university of Durham conferred on him the honorary degree of D.C.L., and that of Birmingham an honorary LL.D. He was created a baronet in 1911.
Whatever task Butlin undertook he carried out with all his energies and with conspicuous success. He had a very strong sense of duty, and his own interest or advancement were of no account as compared with the cause which he had at heart. His high standards and personal qualities won for him the respect and affection of those with whom he had to do; so, in virtue of duty well done, there came to him, unsought, the highest places and honours in his profession. To those who knew him best it was a constant source of surprise that with a frame so slight and so little robust, he was able to carry on so many activities and with such efficiency.
Yet, in addition to his hospital and other public work, and the demands of a large practice as operating surgeon and laryngologist, Butlin always found time for scientific investigation, and all through his busy life he produced papers, addresses, and monographs, dealing, for the most part, with the favourite subjects of his study, namely the pathology of carcinoma and sarcoma. His last contribution there-to, which embodied highly original views, was read for him before the Royal College of Surgeons in the last months of his life. He was also the author of a well-known book upon Diseases of the Tongue (1885). An excellent lecturer, and an orator of the school of Paget, Butlin had taken trouble to train himself in public speaking, and could deliver an address, or a Hunterian oration, without notes, in admirable form, and with good emphasis.
Outside his profession, Butlin had many interests. He was a man of cultured taste, had a keen appreciation of art, was a good linguist, and liked to spend his holidays in travel in France, Spain, or Italy. He was fond of horses, and riding and driving were among his favourite recreations. He died in London 24 January 1912.
Butlin married in 1878 Annie Tipping, daughter of Henry Balderson, merchant, of Hemel Hempstead, and to his wife’s helpful co-operation he liked to attribute much of his success in life. They had two daughters and a son who, succeeding his father as second baronet, joined the army whilst an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was killed in action in the European War in 1916.
[Obituary notice by C. B. Lockwood in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital Report, vol. xlviii, 1912; Lancet, 1912, vol. i, p. 881; British Medical Journal, 1912, vol. i, p. 276; private information; personal knowledge.]