It is with great sadness that we have to announce the loss of our friend and fellow Muskrat Tony Butler, who passed away following a long illness in mid-November. There follows an extract from his obituary, amended to reflect our personal feelings and memories:

Tony was born in Canterbury in early 1945.  Tony attended Maidstone Grammar School and went from there to Oxford, Cambridge and Columbia Law School in New York. At MGS he was a half decent rugby player, particularly in the lineout. At cricket, his batting had more style than success, but his bowling was extremely fast and quite dangerous. Despite his involvement with the Muskrats and hanging out with the naughty boys, Tony became a Praefect (yes, that’s how it’s spelt at MGS!) and, to his surprise, School Captain,  He was said to have brought rather more fairness and consideration to the disciplining of the boys than had been the case in previous years. He greatly enjoyed the CCF and became the Regimental Sergeant Major of the 300-strong MGS contingent.  He studied History at University College Oxford before entering the Civil Service.  At Oxford Tony met and fell in love with Ann.  They married three months after he graduated. They have two children, Catherine and James and five grandchildren.  Tony went on to study for a postgraduate diploma in Criminology and then went to New York where he studied more criminology, courtesy of an extraordinarily generous Ford Fellowship about £4,000 (worth probably £100k today).  His career and contributions to his work and leisure communities are summarised below, but we in the Muskrats have lost a very dear friend with whom we had renewed our acquaintance only recently after too long a period following us all leaving school in the ‘60s.  Many of the eulogies at the celebration of his life following his burial spoke of his dedication to thorough work and the well-being of his staff and friends.  He took on the regeneration of the Muskrats with much vigour, preparing musical arrangements, organising rehearsals, recording sessions and gigs.  Without him we would not have achieved what we did in the far too short a period from reuniting in 2007.  It is too early to form plans at present, but we are determined to preserve his memory in some way in our continuing musical life.

Career:

Joined Home Office as Assistant Principal, 1969; Police and Criminal Depts, 1969–72;

Private Secretary to Minister of State, Home Office, 1972–74;

Principal, General Department, Sex Discrimination and Race Relations Legislation Units and Broadcasting Dept, 1974–79;

Private Secretary to Secretary of State for the Home Office, 1979–80;

Assistant Secretary, Broadcasting, Finance and Prisons Depts, 1980–88;

Assistant Under-Secretary of State, seconded to Department of Environment 1988 as Director of Inner Cities;

Principal Finance Officer, Home Office, 1990;

Director of Personnel and Finance, then of Personnel, later of Services, HM Prison Service, 1990–96;

Director, Oxford University Careers Service, 1996–2006.

Public Services:

Independent Assessor, Department for Culture, Media & Sport, 2000–07.

Director, 2000–06, Chairman, 2005–06, CVs.ac.uk Ltd.

Treasurer, 2002–04, President, 2004–06, Association of Graduate Careers Advice Services.

Trustee, University College Oxford Old Members’ Trust, 1988–94 (Chair of Trustees, 1991–94).

Foundation Governor, St Gregory the Great School, Oxford, 2007– 2010.

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Professorial Fellow, New College, Oxford,

Recreation and Leisure:

Lead Guitarist – Muskrats 1960-62, 2007-10)

Virtual walking and under-gardening!