CIVVIE Guy Butler has beaten some of the best military snappers in the country with an image shot during a boxing night at the new REME barracks in Lyneham.

Guy, from Royal Wootton Bassett won the pro sport and adventurous training category in the British Army Photographic Competition with an atmospheric shot of a boxer fist-bumping with 8 Training Battalion’s commanding officer Lt Col Daryl Hirst.

The contest has been running for the past two decades but was opened up to members of the public earlier this year.

“It is simply an amazing honour to be recognised amongst my peers,” he said. “I feel very privileged as a civilian to be working so closely with the British Army across all their work life and social spectrums.

“This is the first competition I’ve ever entered any of my work into as a photographer, so am both stunned and ecstatic to have won especially when the pool of talent within the professional photographers both in the Royal Logistic Corps and Civil Service is so high.”

Nicknamed Twinkle, he works for Babcock, he works as photographer to the new Defence School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

His shot the image during the battalion’s first boxing night at the newly opened Prince Philip Barracks as competitor Matthew Wells swaggered past VIPs and guests towards the ring, stopping to fist bump his boss on the way.

This year’s photo competition has seen the highest ever number of entries, with 780 photographs submitted in total. Videos were double the number last year at 52.

Warrant officer Will Craig, Command Master Photographer, was impressed at the standard.

“I have been running the Army photographic competition for the last four years and this year has seen the highest amount of entries ever seen," he said.

"The images have really captured the judges’ attention.”

Guy was presented with his prize by Chief of the General Staff General Sir Nicholas Carter at a ceremony in the Imperial War Museum on Wednesday, where an exhibition of the winning images is being hosted.

The annual contest is open to all regular and reserve personnel, staff and cadets of the Combined Cadet Force, Army Cadet Force, University Officer Training Corps and MOD civilians and contractors who work directly with the Army.

Photography is recognised as a trade in the Royal Logistic Corps and there are more than 30 military professional photographers assigned to units in the UK and Germany or working at army headquarters in Andover.