Edward Alexander Butterworth was an ophthalmic surgeon to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He was born on 6 July 1907, at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the son of Arthur Shaw Butterworth, a civil engineer, and Ida Evelyn White. He was educated at the Royal Masonic School, Bushey, from which he gained an entrance scholarship to St Mary's. He qualified in 1929, having been influenced by Charles Pannett and Harold Ridley. After training in ophthalmology at Moorfields, he became ophthalmic surgeon to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital. He married Sylvia Hardy in 1938, by whom he had two daughters and one son who followed his footsteps into medicine and qualified at St Mary's. His hobbies were gardening and sailing. He died on 26 November 1997.