Anne and Graham Butler
Profile
Graham Butler was born in 1938 and spent his childhood years in Bodicote, near Banbury. His parents were staunch Anglicans of the ‘broad church’ kind, and his grandfather was a Church Army captain. Graham has happy and amusing memories of village worship at Bodicote parish church, singing in the choir and excelling in early years as a treble, and later as a fine bass-baritone. After leaving school, he learned the skills of monumental masonry from his father, Fred. As a conscientious objector, Graham worked as a hospital porter instead of doing National Service during the years of conscription. For some time he was employed in journalism, and remembers his time spent reporting cases in Bicester Magistrates Court.
Graham’s wife Anne spent her early years in Henley, where her father Les was a chef. He had a Methodist background, and Anne has inherited much of his independent and fearless view of humanity. Her mother Lou was a tailor. Anne worked at a solicitor’s office for a number of years, where she honed her skills as a typist and writer.
Anne and Graham met in 1973 and were married in 1975. His father having died, Anne joined Graham in partnership in the masonry business. Both can be seen in country churchyards, heaving and cleaning stones in all weathers. They take pride in the service and comfort that they offer to bereaved clients. They have a son, Daniel, aged 26, and a daughter, Dawn, aged 24; all live close at hand and share in looking after one another’s ebullient dogs. Anne is a keen supporter of Oxford United, and indeed has been a deft dribbler of a football herself in years gone by. She and Graham may be seen at the Kassam Stadium, shrieking from the South Stand on Saturday afternoons, ever ready to support a lost cause or give succour during the darkest hours.
Graham and Anne have been attending Sunday worship regularly in MCO Chapel since 1997, although Graham’s links with the chapel stretch back to the 1960s, when he responded to an advertisement about Unitarianism in the New Statesman. He speaks fondly of the halcyon days when Harry Short and Dudley Richards held forth from twin pulpits in the chapel. In 1972 Graham introduced me to the congregational worship. In the 1970s he also helped the Bicester United Reformed Church, by taking services and preaching sermons.
The Butlers are now looking forward to retirement. Graham has recently completed a counselling course, and Anne hopes to support him in building up a practice, as closely as she has in years past. However, they hope to have more time too to pursue their wide interests. Anne is a talented artist, and Graham has had a number of his poems published. Anne has enjoyed her contact with the Unitarian Women’s League, while Graham will continue to pursue his interest in psychic research and comparative religion. Gavin Lloyd May 2002