Pat

### Cause of death

Accidentally shot through the neck with an arrow, while giving an archery lesson to a group of Adventure Scouts

## Relationships

### Family

Carol (Wife)
Daley (son)
Pat II (grandson)

## Portrayal information

### Appears in

All episodes

**Patrick "Pat" Bobby Butcher** is the ghost of a scoutsmaster from the 80s, who died in an archery accident on the grounds just in front of Button House.

## Biography

### History

Pat was the son of Maureen Butcher, who was also known by the initial of E and her husband, Alfred Patrick Butcher. He mentioned that before his job as a Scoutmaster, he worked in a bank. Pat married Carol Butcher at some point - probably the 1970s due to his description of their wedding outfits. - and they had a son named Daley. He was very close to his best friend, Morris, who he was completely unaware was having an affair with his wife even though it was quite obvious. Because of his cheerful and kind nature, Pat became a scoutmaster - known as "Skip" or "Skipper" by the kids - and devoted much of his time to his troop, planning exciting activities for them and taking the kids on trips. On one such trip in 1984 (the 27th of October, according to the newspaper clipping from Mike's ghost board) they went to Button House to use the large expanse of the grounds for archery. While instructing the children on safety and the rules he let them pass around the bow and arrows only for one, Keith Darren Dean, to loose one and hit Pat directly in the neck; he then passed the bow to another boy as if hiding what he'd just done. Pat stumbled towards the coach and asked for one of them to call his wife while he tried to drive himself to a hospital, but unfortunately Pat's injuries were too severe and he crashed into a tree and died. He was 39, as stated on the newspaper article.

### Death

Having become a member of the dead at Button House, Pat was quick to introduce clubs and activities to them just as he had with his scout group, such as 'what I'd wear today if I could', music club, food club and speeches, as well as the game 'grandmother went to market', which he refers to as 'granny went to the shops'. Slowly, over the years, these things became daily occurrences for the ghosts to varying degrees of enjoyment, simply because they had nothing better with which to occupy their time. Pat's later introduction of impressions club even he admitted would likely be a short lived one.

During the great storm of 1987 the tree that Pat crashed into was damaged, leaving behind nothing but a jagged stump.

When the Coopers first arrive at Button House, he recognises the Kim Wilde song 'Kids In America' and is rather curious about the new residents, unlike most of the others. After the suggestion of killing them is raised he is entirely against it (along with Fanny and Kitty), and soon comes up with the alternative of haunting Alison and Mike to make them leave, but this plan backfires when the ghosts turn out to not be very good at it. Pat isn't overly worried about this as he quickly decides he likes having them around, especially Alison when she gains her ability to see them all.

When the anniversary of Pat's accidental death comes around during Happy Death Day, he grows understandably depressed and loses his usual cheery attitude. Eventually, he speaks with Alison about it and informs her that his family would visit at some point of the day. Initially, he wants Alison to pass on a message for him - which Alison doesn't think is wise - but while speaking with her he reveals odd occurrences which he noticed between his wife and Morris, and finally discerns just what was happening between them: that his wife and best friend were having an affair. Soon afterwards Pat decides that he wants Alison to kill Carol for him so they could be "together forever" in death; he tells her he doesn't mind how she is killed as long as her face isn't marked. Alison vehemently refuses and Pat realises what he'd asked and becomes ashamed and outraged at himself, saying he's a 'monster man', then running off. Later, as the ghosts and Alison watch Pat's family arrive, Alison caves and says she'd pass a message for him but the scoutmaster assures her that it isn't needed. This sparks Alison to go and ask about their lives, allowing her to reveal that his family is happy, Carol is busy with bowls, and Daley has become an accountant and since had a son with his girlfriend. When Pat learns that his grandson is named after him, he happily rushes over to them and is overwhelmingly happy about the fact that the baby has his legs. An intense, bright light appears a moment later which Pat mistakenly takes to be his time to move on, he quickly says his goodbyes to the ghosts and reveals how he really feels about them only to realise his mistake and turn quiet.

When Robin desperately wants to have his Moonah Ston Ritual, Pat is the only one -living or dead - who shows genuine concern for the caveman. He's the only one to ask as to why the eclipse is so important to Robin and shows empathy when he learns that it's because the moon is the only thing which has been there for as long as Robin himself. Though having been distracted by a new love of the television show *Friends,* it is Pat who manages to get Alison and Mike to have the sofa moved outside so they could look at the moon, even though they missed the eclipse.

Due to his desire to get Alison and Mike to leave in Getting Out, the Captain is outed from their group and Pat finds himself put in charge even though he'd not intended to be. He tries his very hardest to keep the ghosts as a unit and have them think of a way to stop the Coopers selling the house to Herrington Hotel's representative, Fiona Legge. Despite Pat's hard work and all the ideas they come up with, Pat is soon revealed to not be the natural authority figure the Captain is and entirely misses Fiona's lies, along with her attempt to con Alison and Mike. Fortunately, Cap does notice and uses his natural talents to both get rid of Fiona and keep Alison at the house, even though he'd originally wanted them gone. When Pat realises it was all Cap's doing, he figures out just how much they do need him around as their de facto leader and there is an unspoken transfer of power back to him.

In an attempt to make some money, the Coopers invite ghost hunters into Button House after a picture of Fanny is publicly revealed in The Grey Lady and - though unable to help in any practical way - he does come across a recording device with Thomas. Eager to help and hearing that their voices could be heard, he sits down to speak and ends up turning it into a fake radio show with him as the DJ and Thomas as his guest. Initially this doesn’t go very well since the conversation is one sided and Thomas struggles, but the poet soon gets the hang of it and the pair carry on for hours as if it were all real with commercials, such as one for "Louise's pleasing Cheese". Disappointingly, when the ghost hunter returns it is revealed that not a single word was ever picked up by the device and all their hard work to help Alison was for nothing. Pat commends Thomas while the poet says Pat had "a slightly grating register and a tendency to gabble".

While Alison and Mike try to get the garden ready for a wedding viewing in Redding Weddy, it falls to Pat to try and keep the ghosts occupied. This is something he takes to quickly because it lets him be 'the Goose to Alison's Maverick just like in Top Gun'; he further finds it fitting since Goose died and Pat is already dead. Since Julian and Thomas had been arguing among themselves and Cap was more focused on the Coopers digging up the garden, Pat decides to have a game of volleyball in which Humphrey's Head is used as the ball. This works well for a time, but he soon loses control of the ghosts, again suggesting that he is not cut out to be their full-time leader. After the explosion of the Captain's secret limpet mine and the venue viewing going extremely well, he decides that in order to resolve the argument of who can choose the film he would select one, and decides on 2001: A Space Odyssey.

When burglars break into the house in Bump In The Night, the ghosts are all quickly given tasks to accomplish by the Captain, however Pat attempts to place Nev - the younger burglar - under a citizen's arrest, but of course this ends simply by Nev walking through Pat completely unperturbed. He pointlessly tries to talk Nev out of stealing later on - even though Nev can't hear him - by saying he was 'heading down a dark path,' but instantly changes his mind after Nev sticks his gum on the side of a table, to which he announces 'Borstal. You're going to Borstal, they're going to eat you alive.' (Borstal refers to a type of young offenders' institution which was abolished in Britain in 1982 and replaced with youth custody centres.)

Determined to get the thieves out of the house, he works with Cap, Thomas, Robin and Julian to figure out a way of alerting the police once they realise that Alison had gone out. They manage to dial the police thanks to Julian's skill, but quickly realise they'd not thought very far ahead and had no way of actually speaking to the 999 operator. Thomas suggests Jemima as her voice can be heard, but they come to discover that she won't say anything except her song, so Pat does his best to convert their message into the melody of her song, but she never sings it as he wants. With Mike as their last hope, he comes up with using steam so Julian can write on the mirror after they find that Mike doesn't understand Morse Code, but Mike freaks out when he mistakenly thinks there are twenty burglars rather than two because Julian had complicated things by trying to write 'two of them'. Even though she never reports the crime, Jemima's voice is what causes the police arrive, since the 999 operator thought she'd heard a child.

To begin with, Pat is happy to see all the guests who have managed to arrive for Sam's and Clare's wedding in Perfect Day, though grows angry and irritable when an adult Keith Darren Dean arrives at the house and Pat realises who he is. Still angry over his death, Pat is short-tempered and grumpy with the other ghosts who are trying to get the wedding to go ahead and eventually tries to punch Keith, though his hand goes straight through, strikes Thomas and starts a fight between all of them instead until Pat marches off after Keith. It is only Kitty who thinks to look at the guest list and figures out this is the adult version of Pat's unwitting killer. Pat manages to calm his rage when Keith heads out to the tree stump to speak with him, as he realises that Keith is still haunted by what happened just as much as Pat is, if not more. Ultimately, Pat forgives Keith and knows it was just a tragic accident rather than something born of malice. After the wedding, the lights almost fall down but Keith catches it and Pat sees he had remembered the knot he'd been taught, to which Pat decides he's actually proud of Keith.

## Appearance

Pat is dressed in a traditional scoutmaster's uniform consisting of shorts, shirt - which has a few badges on it - and a neckerchief fastened by a woggle; a woggle is a type of leather ring or loop through which the scout scarf is threaded to keep it in place. Pat also wears large glasses befitting the 80s and, most notably, has part of a broken arrow protruding from his throat where it pierced both neck and scarf. The scoutmaster has dark brown hair and a large moustache. He's also not overly tall as he stands at roughly 5' 5''.

## Personality

Pat is a kind, friendly and helpful man who does his best to remain positive at all times, he is considerate and tries to find compromises between the ghosts as well as clubs and activities for them to interact. He highly values team work and favours talking things through calmly as a method of working through differences. He takes pride in explaining technological things to the elder ghosts, such as what a television is, even though he is sometimes stumped by inventions post-dating his death. Pat is the most empathetic of the Button House ghosts, rivalled only by Kitty, which can leave him having to act as mediator between people and viewing his fellow dead as family. He has taken to occasionally treating his fellow ghosts as if they are his troop and has become popular among the majority of the other ghosts because of his genuine nature. For some, though, his cheerful personality is seen as being overpoweringly so, such as when he introduces himself to Alison for the first time.

Pat believes that the the Captain and Fanny need to relax their overbearing ways and isn't overly sure Julian can be trusted: he'd also like for Cap to finally accept the war is over, although he hardly ever mentions these beliefs as he doesn't wish to cause upset or anger with anyone. When Cap is outed from their group for being too bossy, Pat is the one nominated to take his place as leader, suggesting the ghosts view Pat as a sort of second-in-command to the Captain. However, the following events reveal that - while motivated and truly trying his best - Pat isn't the natural authority figure that Cap is and things soon descend into shouting, much as an adult trying to control rowdy children usually goes.

Though he tries to keep a level head, Pat has been known to get angry and frustrated easily. When the ghosts don't listen to him or keep arguing amongst themselves his voice will grow ever higher in pitch, displaying his irritation. Anger pops up most notably when Keith Darren Dean - the boy who shot him accidentally with an arrow - arrives for a wedding at Button House and Pat attempts to hit him to no avail. This causes a violent fight between the ghosts.

## Quotes

* "And I'll - actually, I don't do anything wrong, do I?" — Getting Out
* "Fanny's exposed!" — The Grey Lady
* "The Captain wanted me to convey a message, just to turn the music... off, and cease talking immediately." — About Last Night
* "Oh naff off you wazzock." — About Last Night
* "All right, clever-dicks." — Redding Weddy
* "Cheeky little blighter!" — Bump In The Night
* "Don't come crying to me when you bend over in the shower and someone puts drugs in your bottom!" — Bump In The Night
* "I should never have given an eight-year-old a lethal weapon." — Perfect Day
* "I still get a tingle in my dingle on Christmas Eve!"" — The Ghost of Christmas
* "You're mad? Friday's Fish 'n' Chips Night!"" — Something to Share?

## Trivia

* He likes dogs. (He tries to pat Barclay Beg-Chetwynde's dog, although his hand goes through the dog's head.)
* When the film crew are at the house, he sits with Mary by the monitor.
* Thanks to Alison he was able to work his way through most of the World Cup finals from after his death.
* When angered, his voice can grow vastly in pitch.
* He only watched bits of a film on Borstal.
* Pat's favorite film is Top Gun.
	+ The film was made in 1986 though (2 years after Pat's death) which could mean that he watched it when the owner of the house at that time (most likely Heather Button) was watching it and just joined in on it, making him drawn into it.
* For their wedding Carol wore velvet while Pat had a brown three-piece suit on.
* Pat watched the moon landing with his family while eating fish and chips, it was the first time he ever tried a battered sausage.
* He once came home from camp to find Morris' clothes thrown around all up the stairs and still didn't figure out his wife was having an affair.
* He had asthma when he was alive.
* He used to schedule his days every day causing his wife Carol to grow bored of him and to be drawn closer to Pat's friend Morris.
* When he's nervous, he slips into an American accent

## References

1. ↑ *Ghosts: The Button House Archives:* Page 90
2. ↑ *Ghosts: The Button House Archives*: Page 194 and 195
3. ↑ While *The Button House Archives: Page 66* only lists his initials as A.P, it can be assumed to be Alfred Patrick as they are Daley's middle names, as revealed on page 189 of *The Button House Archives*, hinting Pat's father's name was used as the middle names of his grandson.
4. ↑ Perfect Day
5. ↑ Moonah Ston
6. ↑ Getting Out
7. ↑ The Grey Lady
8. ↑ Bump In The Night
9. ↑ Redding Weddy
10. ↑ Happy Death Day