L.Cpl H. Hutchinson

FIRST NAMES: Harold

NUMBER: 3193151

RANK: Lance Corporal

UNIT: 1st Royal Scots

DOB:1920

MARITAL STATUS: Married

OCCUPATION: Printer

STATUS: Killed in Action

DATE OF DEATH: 6th April 1943

WHERE BURIED: Rangoon Memorial

MEDALS: Burma Star, 1939-45 Star, Victory Medal, Defence Medal

Harold Hutchinson was the son of Alf and Mary Hutchinson. He was born in Northallerton in 1923 and was one of a family of six brothers and six sisters. He attended the Applegarth and National schools. After leaving school Harold was apprenticed to Nicholas/Smith printers of Northallerton. Like his younger brother John, he was an active member of the Northallerton Cycling Club.

In 1939 he joined the local TA and in 1942 was called up and joined the Royal Scots. Shortly after joining the army, Harold married a girl he met while stationed near Hull.

In late 1942 Harold, with the 5th Battalion Royal Scots, was sent to India and then to Burma as part of the famous Fourteenth Army under General William Slim. The Fourteenth Army were often referred to as the Forgotten Army due to the lack of reporting of their success against the Japanese. It was in fact the Fourteenth Army that inflicted the greatest ground defeat on the Japanese Imperial Army. In the fierce fighting that followed and against overwhelming odds, Harold, who was serving as a stretcher bearer, was killed while helping to relieve a battalion of Green Howards who had been surrounded by Japanese troops.

Harold Hutchinson's body was never found and he is remembered on the Rangoon Memorial at Myanmar, Burma, on panel 4. He is also remembered on the Northallerton War Memorial and the Memorial in All Saints Church.

Harold was aged 23 and the older brother of John Hutchinson, killed in action in Belgium 1944.