Samuel Henry Butcher was born in Dublin on 16 April 1850. He was the son of Samuel Butcher, Bishop of Meath. Butcher was educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was a Lecturer at University College, Oxford, until 1882 when he became Professor of Greek at Edinburgh University. Between 1889 and 1896 he was a member of the Scottish Universities Commission, and in 1901 he was a member of the Royal Commission on University Education in Ireland. Later on, in 1906, Butcher was a member of the Royal Commission on Trinity College, Dublin. He lectured at Harvard University in 1904 and was an honorary foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1905. From 1906, Butcher was the Unionist MP for Cambridge University. Professor Samuel Henry Butcher died 29 December 1910.
From the guide to the Papers of Professor Samuel Henry Butcher (1850-1910), 1882-1910, (Edinburgh University Library)
