Tributes paid to Captain who helped hundreds in Chichester

Captain Len Butt died aged 94 on Wednesday, March 24. He is remembered for his good humour, great affection and for his work in keeping ‘hundreds’ of Chichester teenagers ‘on the straight and narrow’.

He led the Royal Sussex Army Cadet Force in Chichester from 1961 to 1982 and was subsequently one of the first recipients of the Chichester City Council Civic Award.

Friend and former Mayor Anne Scicluna said of Len: “He always seemed so very good-humoured and believed strongly in what he was doing to help the lads, many of whom went on to join the army themselves.

“Hundreds of young people have cause to thank him for the help and attention he gave them in their teenage years. I later knew him also as the man who organised the functions for the

Royal Sussex Regimental Association and it was always a real pleasure to attend their dinners, often as his personal guest.

“Len was immensely proud to be one of the very first recipients of a Chichester City Council Civic Award in 1986 and he attended almost all the subsequent award ceremonies, proudly wearing his own award badge as well as his war medals.

"In recent years, as a long-standing member of the Chichester City Club, he used to take a taxi every Wednesday to meet his friends in the club.

"There he was to be seen every week, clutching his large glass of shandy and surrounded by his many friends, until the taxi came back to pick him up to go home. Many times also, he would invite some of those friends to share a lunch with him at the club.

“A very large number of local people, young and old, have cause to remember Len Butt with thanks, with pleasure, and with great affection. A real character, who will be much missed by many people.”