Put your Pig in his place

H Ernest Hutchinson

Solving the puzzle of who H Ernest Hutchinson was, was only solved when I stumbled across a reference in an article with a rather unexpected title: Bolshevism in Lancashire: British Strike Plays of the 1920s (Bolshevism in Lancashire: British Strike Plays of the 1920s | New Theatre Quarterly | Cambridge Core). In the footnotes, there is a reference that “The Right To Strike” by H Ernest Hutchinson ran for 82 performances between September and December 1920. From this point, the pieces began to fall into place!

Henry Ernest Hutchinson was born in 1884 to Henry Ormerod Hutchinson and Elizabeth Hutchinson nee Clegg. The Hutchinson family were a well-known family who owned the Daisyfield Cotton Mill Cotton Threads - Home (cotton-threads.org.uk) in Bury, Lancashire. Henry Ormerod Hutchinson joined the family firm, and in 1880 married Elizabeth Clegg. In total, Henry and Elizabeth had six children:

· Lillian May Hutchinson bn 1881, died 1882

· John Summerscales Hutchinson bn 2nd September 1882 Life story: John Summerscales Hutchinson | Lives of the First World War (iwm.org.uk)

· Henry Ernest Hutchinson bn 8th December 1884

· Alice Marjorie Hutchinson bn 1888

· Francis Ormerod Hutchinson bn 7th April 1892 A Brother’s Love of Horses | Bury Archives & Local History (wordpress.com)

· Geoffrey Clegg Hutchinson bn October 1893 Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford - Wikipedia

Although this website suggests that Henry Ormerod Hutchinson owned a house in the Lake District History - Broadoaks Country House Hotel, the principal Hutchinson residence was a large Georgian/Victorian house called Elderslie, built on Bury New Road, Prestwich. In subsequent years, Elderslie was the site of a Synagogue, and a Jewish High School for Girls, but until the 1950s was the family home of this branch of the Hutchinson family.

Ernest Hutchinson seems to have received a good standard of education, being educated firstly at Dover College (as per 1901 census return) and then at Manchester Technical School. Upon leaving The Tech as it was colloquially called, Ernest joined the family business. I am not certain how long he remained in the family business, because he then became secretary to Anderson Montague-Barlow who was MP for Salford South from 1910. Electoral rolls show that Ernest was living at Elderslie up to 1914.

When WW1 broke out, Ernest joined the Royal Field Artillery before transferring to 4th Brigade Royal Horse Artillery. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant, and qualified for the Victory, British and Star medals. According to his medal card, Ernest’s first theatre of war was France and Belgium in May 1915 which means that it is likely that he was involved in the Second Battle of Ypres. Ernest remained in service until the end of 1916 when he was invalided out due to contracting rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is an inflammatory reaction that can develop as a reaction to a streptococcal infection such as a throat infection or scarlet fever. Rheumatic fever can cause permanent damage to the heart, and as such would have rendered Ernest unfit for service. He was approved to receive a Silver War Badge – a badge to be worn on civilian clothing to demonstrate that the wearer was not able to serve in the forces. These had been introduced in response to some men who were perceived as shirking their duty being given white feathers to denote their cowardice.

Although Ernest was no longer fit for military service, he joined the War Office where he was responsible for co-ordinating the supply of cotton. This obviously fitted well with his background knowledge and experience.

Electoral rolls do not exist for the period of WW1, but from 1919 we can find Ernest living at 1/2 Adam Street in Westminster, part of the Adelphi development. Whilst he was living here, he wrote his most famous play “The Right To Strike”, apparently inspired by a conversation that he had with a doctor during the Railway Strike of 1919. The doctor queried what would happen if medical professionals downed tools and refused to treat people and from this conversation Ernest took inspiration.

On 5th November 1921, Ernest died at a London nursing home. He had been admitted into the nursing home during the previous week for a small operation on his nose. This had been successful, and he was recovering well and due to be released on Sunday. However, he was found dead on the Saturday night with the cause of death given as heart failure. Perhaps the rheumatic fever had weakened his heart to a greater degree than had been suspected. His funeral took place in the parish church at Prestwich followed by interment in the family vault.

His play “The Right To Strike” was made into a silent film in 1923 The Right to Strike - Wikipedia.

NB: a key article when writing this biography was an obituary published in the Nottingham Journal on 8th November 1921. Without the information found in that article, I am not certain that I would have been able to put as much flesh on the bones!