AMONG those buried in the churchyard at St Michael and All Angels is a survivor of the First World War called Major Gerald Villers Butler.

He was born on New Year’s Day in 1897 and died in 1967.

During the First World War he was a second lieutenant on the Tank Corps and was awarded the Silver War Medal and Victory Medal which he claimed in 1922.

His headstone at Hawkshead reads: “He spent his life helping boys to be men.”

He was the son of the Reverend Hercules Scott Butler, vicar of Preston.

After the war he became the head of a school in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh.

His brother Hubert, who lived from 1899 to 1971, was a Royal Flying Corps veteran who set up the Huyton Hill School,Liverpool, in 1926 with just seven boys.

It was a preparatory school for boys going to the public schools.

When the Second World War started in September 1939 he moved the school to Pull Wood House overlooking Windermere.

Gerald joined him in 1950 after leaving the army and became joint headmaster with his brother.

The school was the first in the country to have its own landing strip for light aircraft in 100 acres of grounds.

The School motto was “I Will with a good will”

In 1947 the fees were up to 50 guineas (£52.50) a term and had risen to 100 guineas (£105) in 1964.

The school reached a maximum of 74 pupils in 1965 and closed 1969.

An advertisement in 1965 noted: “All rooms well furnished and brightly decorated. Really good food. Modern and sensible dress.”

Hawkshead war memorial is in the churchyard at St Michael and All Angels was designed by William Gershom Collingwood and sculpted by his daughter Barbara Collingwood.

It was dedicated on November 11 in 1920.

Among those named on the Hawkshead Memorial is Second Lieutenant Thomas Henry Irving, who died at the age of 22 on August 19 in 1916.

He served with the 3rd battalion of the King’s Liverpool Regiment and is commemorated at the Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, Longueval.

He was the son of Canon Thomas Henry Irving and Margaret Anne Irving, of Hawkshead Vicarage.

He was born at Lindale.