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Guy was born in 1899. He was the son of Edward Butler and Gertrude Fair. From 1913 to 1918 he was a pupil at Harrow School, where he was head of the school and captain of the cricket and football elevens in 1917, and victor ludorum, 1916–18. He won three events at the Public School Sports of 1917. In 1918 he entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, but following the end of the First World War he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in January 1919. He sat part one of the historical tripos in 1921, but did not gain honours and then studied for an ordinary degree, graduating BA in 1922. In 1920–21 he was president of the Cambridge University Athletic Club, presiding over a team that included Harold Abrahams, Douglas Lowe, and Hyla Stallard.
He excelled in Athletics at school and university and continued as an amateur athlete. At the Antwerp Olympics in 1920, Guy won the silver medal in the individual 400 m and anchored the British 4 × 400 m relay team to a gold medal in 3:22.2. At the 1924 Summer Olympics, he won bronze in the 400 m and again anchored the British 4 × 400 m relay team, this time winning bronze in 3:17.4. In 1928 he became the first British track and field athlete to compete in three Olympics; he reached a 200 m quarterfinal, and retired shortly thereafter. Guy won the British AAA Championships in 440 yd (400 m) in 1919 and in 220 yd (200 m) in 1926. He also ran the 300 yd (270 m) world record of 30.6 in 1926.
After graduating from Cambridge he was a schoolmaster at Lancing College from 1922, where he encouraged athletics and organized inter-school matches. He left Lancing early in 1928 after suffering a nervous breakdown. Having spent nine seasons in top-flight athletics, he later described how he was plagued by sleeplessness at Amsterdam, and continually suffered from insomnia before big races. Looking back, he reflected that 'the misery which I suffered from nerves robbed athletics of any real pleasure'. After this he coached athletics and wrote about the sport as a newspaper correspondent for the Morning Post, The Observer, and the Sunday Express. His first book, Modern Athletics (1929), was aimed at schools, and emphasized the importance of scientific technique in training. He made extensive use of photographs taken by high-speed cameras, and his major contribution to athletics coaching was his loop filming of athletes' actions which underpinned the instructional booklets produced by the pioneering coach Geoff Dyson. He also advised on the design of the White City stadium and the Motspur Park running track. His Running and Runners (1938) contained reflections on athletics and an analysis of the athletic development of some leading athletes. He passed away in 1981. His British record of four Olympic track medals was not equalled until after his death when Sebastian Coe did so in 1984.
Sources
- Butler family tree in possession of NW Smith and passed down to BW Smith
- https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/120228848/person/302060042390/facts
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Butler_(athlete)
- https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-65162
