Delgany Day Remembers A WW2 Hero

Sergeant Leslie Butler

arking 100 years since the very first RCB staff social, Delgany Golf Club has just played host to an annual big day out introduced in honour of Sergeant Leslie Butler.

Leslie was part of a six-member crew on board the long-range bomber Vickers Wellington that tragically fell short of reaching its Malta destination back on June 16th, 1941.

The 1926 Delgany Day

All six perished when the plane crashed into the sea.

A month before the tragedy, Butler had sent a message from his Malta naval base to his fellow Representative Church Body players, as they prepared for the 15th annual RCB golfing outing to Delgany.

It read, ‘Should I not be with you in person, I am certainly with you in spirit and I trust that 1942 will see me in your midst once again. May you have a glorious day with plenty of sunshine – and things!

The 2026 Delgany Day

‘Good luck and all the best for 1941‘.

According to local lad Peter Murtagh – writing in The Irish Times – there is no record of a memorial service for Leslie, but there was a death notice in that paper, which was then edited by RM ‘Bertie’ Smyllie, twice captain of the Delgany Golf Club.

It was in 1942 that the Leslie Butler Trophy was created by his colleagues for Delgany Day, a silver cup with the inscription ‘in proud and happy memory’.

It’s a memory that has just played out again at Delgany Golf Club, the mighty John McGowan capturing the day.