Major Archibald Willingham Butt

Major Archibald Willingham Butt, 45, was born on 26 September 1865.

A resident of Washington DC, USA, Major Butt boarded the Titanic at Southampton with his friend Francis D. Millet. Travelling as a first class passenger (ticket number 113050, £26 11s), Major Butt occupied cabin B-38 .

An influential military aide to President William Howard Taft and President Theodore Roosevelt, Archibald Butt was born into a prominent Augusta, Georgia, family. After his graduation in 1888 from the University of the South in Tennessee, Butt began a career in journalism, first writing for the Louisville Courier Journal and later as a reporter in Washington for a group of Southern newspapers. While working in Washington he became secretary of the Mexican Embassy with General "Matt" Ransom, Confederate officer and former United States senator from North Carolina.

In 1898 Butt left Mexico to enter the United States army as a lieutenant during the Spanish-American War, and decided to make the military a second career. He served in the Philippines from 1900 to 1906, then in Cuba before becoming military aide to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908. Butt's health began to deteriorate in 1912 because of his attempts to remain neutral during the bitter personal quarrel between Roosevelt and Taft. Needing rest, he took six weeks' leave from the White House and sailed for Europe with his close friend Francis Millet, who was en-route to Rome on business at the American Academy which he directed. They were returning to Washington on the Titanic .

Following the disaster rumours circulated that Marie Grice Young had conversed with Major Butt during the sinking and she was forced the write to the president to set the record straight.

After their deaths the Millet-Butt Memorial Fountain was erected to their memory in Washington, DC.

References
Contract Ticket List , White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
Alan Yorker, USA (Titanic Commutator Vol: 23, No. 145, 1999)

Past Contributors
Alan Hustak, Canada
Hermann Söldner, Germany
Craig Stringer, UK
Geoff Whitfield, UK

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