Joseph Henry Butcher was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 footballer who played in the Football League for Wolverhampton Wanderers

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...

, with whom he won the 1893 FA Cup

FA Cup 1892–93

The FA Cup 1892–93 was the 22nd staging of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Wolverhampton Wanderers won the competition, beating Everton 1–0 in the final at Fallowfield Stadium for the only time , with...

.

Career

Butcher began his career with amateur side Wolverhampton East End, before joining the city's Football League side Wolverhampton Wanderers

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...

 in 1892. He made his club debut on 24 September 1892 when he scored in a 3-0 victory over . In only his fifth appearance for the club, he netted all five goals in a 5-3 win against , a club record never bettered.

He was a member of Wolves' 1893 FA Cup

1893 FA Cup Final

The 1893 FA Cup Final was an association football game contested by Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton. Wolves won by a single goal, scored by Harry Allen....

 winning team, playing in the 1-0 triumph against that won the club their first FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

. Butcher had previously scored goals in both the quarter-final and semi-final to help them to the showpiece final. He was aged just 18 at the time of this success, making him then the youngest player ever to have won the trophy.

The forward was Wolves' leading goalscorer in the 1893-94 season, with 14 goals, but the next campaign was an injury-hampered one and he only managed two further goals for the club. He scored a total of 30 goals in 76 appearances.

He joined local rivals and fellow First Division

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 side, West Bromwich Albion

West Bromwich Albion F.C.

West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...

, in Summer 1895. However, he suffered a career-ending injury before he was able to make his first team debut. This forced him into a premature playing retirement aged 21.

A copy of his contract was buried in a time capsule along with Steve Bull's during the redevelopment of Molineux in 1994.