Regiment: R.N.V.R..
Died: 09 April 1940 aged in Norwegian Coast. Missing, presumed killed at sea.
Cemetery: Plymouth Naval Memorial Panel 44, Column 1.
Son of Cdr. J. F. Hutchings, D.S.O., R.N., Wake's House, Havant, Hants.
Mod. Lan. V.
'Jim Hutchings had that lively disposition which gets the best out of life, and into his short career he had crammed a variety of enterprise and experience.
Coming to Malvern as an Exhibitioner in 1931, he left early to take advantage of a Scholarship for a year's study at Pomfret School, Connecticut, where he thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the kindness and hospitality with which he was everywhere received. But he was equally pleased, on his return to England, to start in business with a firm of Optical and Naval Instrument Manufacturers, which brought him in touch with the sea. For one of his main interests had always been the Royal Navy, in which his father had served; and in 1938, appreciating the drift towards war, he joined the R.N.V.R.
At the outbreak of war he was called up to complete his training, and then posted to H.M.S. Gurkha, in which he was serving in April, 1940, when she was sunk by enemy air attack in the Kattegat.
It was a tragically short career in the Service, for with his enthusiasm and efficiency there can be no doubt that he had the makings of a first-rate Naval Officer; and all his friends will join us in the deepest sympathy for his parents and his family in their loss. ' (Malvernian, July 1940).