Peter Pitman-Butler
Memorial: Dyrham - St Peter's Church
Regiment: Queen's Own Hussars
Medals: 1939–45 Star, War Medal 1939–1945
Rank and number: Captain 45468
Parents: Ernest and Frances Isabel Pitman
Home address: Parents: The Cottage Dyrham Peter: c/o The Cavalry Club, 127 Piccadilly, W1 and Abdel Moniem Barracks,near Cairo.
Pre-war occupation: Soldier
Date of birth: 05/03/1911
Date of death: 17/07/1940
Buried/Commemorated at: He is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt and commemorated along with his brother and sister on the War Memorial in the churchyard of St. Peter’s Church, Dyrham.
Age: 29
Further information:
Peter was a Captain in the 7th Queen’s Own Hussars, Royal Armoured Corps. He was Mentioned in despatches in 1941.
Peter was grand-son of Sir Isaac Pitman inventor of the Pitman shorthand system and founder of Pitman Press (Bath). His father was a publisher in the family business. Peter was the youngest of four brothers and had two younger sisters. One of his brothers, John Pitman, and one of his sisters, Honor Isabel Salmon, also died on war service.
Peter matriculated from school in 1929 and went on to study at Christchurch College Oxford, during which time he assumed the surname Pitman-Bulter (Butler was his mother’s maiden name). He was a keen cricketer and skier and captained the University ski team in Canada. Whilst at University he joined the Officer Training Corps and was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Hussars in 1931. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1934 and Captain in 1939 and was a keen polo player, playing for his regiment.
The 7th Hussars was one of a number of regiments that took part in a series of border skirmishes against the Italians on the Libyan-Egyptian border along an Italian defensive line known as The Frontier Wire. The battles followed on from Italy’s declaration of war against the British in June 1940 and the British claimed to have inflicted 3,500 casualties for a loss of 150 men during this time. Peter was wounded during one of these clashes and later died from his wounds in a military hospital in Alexandria, Egypt.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
With kind permission of Edward Walsh.
This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/fallen-alumni/captain-peter-pitman-butler