Cenotaph dedication to Great War hero

A First World War hero will be honoured in his home town of Radcliffe this Sunday (19 June) with a service and memorial stone dedication at the cenotaph.

The ceremony is almost exactly 100 years after Private James Hutchinson of the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers won a Victoria Cross, the country’s highest honour.

The memorial stone will be unveiled at 11am following a parade of drummers, standards and cadets, starting from Whittaker Street at 10.45am. The public are invited to attend, and go to the United Reformed Church hall for refreshments afterwards.

This is the second memorial stone of its kind to come to Bury, under a scheme launched by the Government to mark acts of heroism in the Great War. The first, to Rifleman George Peachment, was unveiled in Tottington last September.

Pte Hutchinson was a member of a raid party near Blairville Wood, south of the French town of Arras, on 28 June 1916.

Hutchinson took over as leader of nine men when his commanding officer was killed in the attack. He shot or bayoneted a number of German soldiers while taking their trench, until he ran out of ammunition.

He then covered the raiders’ retreat until they were all clear, bandaging the wounded. No one in his party was left behind.

The official version of his gallantry was published in the London Gazette of

9 September 1916, and said he had done these heroic acts while being exposed to fierce fire from machine guns and rifles at close quarters.

Tragically, James’s brother Frank Hutchinson, a corporal, was one of the casualties, and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. His brother Joseph lost the sight in one eye during the Somme offensive, and james himself lost sight in his right eye just three weeks later.

After receiving his VC from the King at Buckingham Palace on 2

December 1916, Private Hutchinson returned home to Radcliffe one week later to a hero’s welcome.

Owing to the loss of his right eye he did not return to active service, but became company bomb instructor. He was discharged from the Army in 1919 with the rank of lance corporal.

James Hutchinson was born at 18 Bank Top, Radcliffe on 9

July 1895, the fourth and youngest son of Samuel and Ann Hutchinson. He was educated at Radcliffe Parish Church Schools, which included a

Sunday school, where he became a teacher and an active member of the

Church Lads’ Brigade.

A keen footballer, he was employed as a piecer at Mellor’s Mill, Warth Fold. He was only 5ft 4in tall, and soon after the outbreak of war he enlisted, at the age of 19, as a private with the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers. He trained in Stockport in Cheshire and left for France on 3 May 1915.

In 1966 he was one of a small group of VC holders who were invited to France by the Minister of Defence to attend the 50^th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

After the war, Hutchinson moved to Torquay where he and his wife ran a boarding house. He died in 1972 and the address at his funeral was given by the Rev Harold Mason Ainscow, who had taken part in the raid in which Hutchinson had won his VC in 1916.

Hutchinson is commemorated on the roll of honour at Radcliffe and Bury parish churches. He is commemorated with a plaque and photograph at his former school, Radcliffe Hall School.

The memorial stone will be installed and maintained by Bury Council, which decided that the cenotaph in Radcliffe would be a fitting place for its location.

Councillor Tamoor Tariq, Bury Council’s Armed Forces spokesman, said: “The First World War took a terrible toll on local communities, yet our young men continued to display extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice.

“Pte Hutchinson was a shining example to all, and this memorial stone will help future generations of Radcliffe people to remember his bravery.”

Communities Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said: “The stone laid in honour of James Hutchinson provides a fitting tribute to his incredible courage and will enable residents of Bury to learn more about a local hero and his role in the First World War.

“Aged only 20, James carried out an outstanding act of bravery and we owe a huge debt of gratitude to those heroes who served and lived through the First World War.

“A century on they are just as inspirational.”

ENDS

Press release issued: 15 June 2016.

Picture: Pte James Hutchinson after being awarded the Victoria Cross.