Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Herbert L. Hutchins (275) Full (1)

13/08/1855 –13/06/1925

Indian Army Colonel who settled with family in Berkhamsted and ended his days in an asylum.

Relatives

Helen Charlotte Hutchins — wife

• Christopher Dolton

HERBERT LEONARD HUTCHINS; 1855 – 1925

Herbert was born on 13^th August 1855 in Stockwell in London. He was baptised on 10^th September that year at Christ Church in Streatham. His parents were David and Sarah Hutchins who had married in 1849. David Hutchins was a wine merchant and his wife Sarah had been born in Scotland. Herbert was one of five children born to David and Sarah.

Their first child, David Ernest Hutchins was born in September 1850. He gained a diploma in forestry and spent ten years in India in the Indian Forest Service. He subsequently transferred to Kenya where he was Chief Conservator of Forest and in 1916 travelled to New Zealand to report on the forestry there. He was knighted for his services to Forestry in 1920 and died later that year whilst still in New Zealand.

David and Sarah’s second child was a daughter, Frances, who was born in 1852. Their third child, born in 1853, Arthur George Hutchins. Herbert was the fourth child born in 1855, followed by Julia in 1857.

Herbert’s parents did not enjoy a long marriage; His father died in 1859 and by 1861 the widowed Sarah and her five young children had moved to Bath where they lived in Seymour Street. Herbert’s brother David attended Blundell’s School in Tiverton, Devon, and in 1871 Arthur was a boarder at Feltham Grammar School in Essex. Unfortunately, Herbert’s whereabouts in 1871 are not known as he eludes us in that year’s census return. We do, however, know that he was still living in Bath in 1869, as a notice published in April that year in The Bristol Times and Mirror tells us that “Herbert Leonard Hutchins, 4 Seymour Street”  was one of a number of young men and women who won a prize for  an essay on “…answers to certain questions relating to the controversy between the Protestant Churches and the Church of Rome.”

Whilst Herbert’s mother was financially secure, being described in the 1861 census as a fundholder, she nevertheless moved to Scotland and latterly Ghent in Belgium whilst her children were being educated, as the cost of living was cheaper there than in England. She returned to this country in about 1880.

Despite Herbert’s  prize winning essay on religious matters, it was his older brother Arthur who was to join the Church of England and become a clergyman. Herbert took a different route. He joined the Indian Army.

On being granted commissions in the Indian Army, officers served a probationary year on the Unattached List with a British Regiment in India. During this time they had to pass a basic examination in a vernacular language.  On 10^th September 1875 Herbert joined the 1^st battalion of the 21^st Foot, Royal Scots Fusiliers, stationed in Madras and that was to be the beginning of Herbert’s long association with India and the Indian Army.

In 1879 he transferred to 25^th Regiment Native Infantry and then  to the Indian Staff Corps. He remained a staff officer for the rest of his military career, steadily rising in rank. In 1886 he was promoted to the rank of captain and the Indian Army List of 1890  reveals he was part of the commissariat department. He was subsequently promoted to major and in November 1901 to lieutenant-colonel. The Indian Army list of 1902 reveals that Herbert was stationed in Ootacamund with the Supply and Transport Corps. Three years later in 1905 he made brevet colonel on the staff of the 9^th (Secunderabad) Divison where he was the officer commanding divisional transport. He retired from the Indian Army on 15^th March 1908 at the age of 52.

Herbert married in 1898 at the age of 43. His bride was 27 year old Helen Charlotte Edmonds.

Early marriage was frowned upon for officers serving in the Indian Army. A marriage allowance was not paid until an officer was 26 and it was customary to obtain the colonel’s permission before marrying. Questions would be asked to ensure that the bride to be was suitable. Permission was frequently refused, at least until the rank of captain had been attained. The informal rule was that subalterns could not marry, captains might marry, majors should marry and colonels must. Herbert was a major at the time of his wedding.

Helen was the fourth daughter of a well to do banker, Orlando Edmonds and the family lived in Stamford in Lincolnshire. How Herbert and Helen first met is not now apparent, but we know they married on the 29^th November 1898 at St George’s Church, Stamford, Lincolnshire when Herbert must have been home on leave. Notice of the marriage published in “The Gentlewoman” in December 1989 tells us that no less than three clergymen celebrated their marriage, “…The Rev. Canon Williams, M.A. uncle of the bride, assisted by the Rev J.F.Camm LL.D, Rector of the Parish, and the Rev. A.G. Hutchins, M.A., brother of the  bridegroom.”

Herbert returned to India after the marriage, Helen coming with him to take up the life of a “memsahib”. She gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Marjorie Frances Page Hutchins. Marjorie was born on 4^th December 1899 in Bangalore, South India. Herbert and Helen were to have five children in all and all but the youngest were to be born in India.  Herbert Reginald Page Hutchins was born on 8 January 1901 in Bangalore. Phillip Perceval Page Hutchins was born in 1903 and Hugh Arnold Page Hutchins was born 12 Sept 1905 both in Ootacamund.  The youngest child, Graham Edward Page Hutchins, was born in 1910 after Herbert had retired from the Indian Army and the family had settled in Berkhamsted and the census of 1911 tells us that the Hutchins family were living at “Littledean” in Kings Road. As well as Herbert, Helen and the five children, three domestic staff were also living at the property, a maid, cook and nursemaid.

Neither Herbert or Helen had any apparent connection with Berkhamsted but it may be that they moved to the town to provide an education for their children. The boys all attended Berkhamsted School. The brothers were in Swifts House, which was a day boy house, but Graham was also a boarder in Incent’s house. Herbert was a House and School Prefect (1917-18) and Quartermaster Sergeant in the Officer’s Training Corps. Hugh was a Senior Prefect and also a member of the Corps. Marjorie attended Berkhamsted Girls Grammar School (as it was known then). 

Three of the four boys all followed their father’s military career and all three of them rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Herbert  became a lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Engineers. Graham became a lieutenant- colonel in the Royal  Leicestershire Regiment and was awarded the D.S.O for his outstanding command of the 1^st battalion of the regiment in 1952 during the Korean War. Hugh was a lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Artillery and died in an air accident in Karachi, Pakistan in 1947. Phillip was the only one who did not follow a career in the Army. He returned to India where he became a tea planter.

The Electoral Rolls from 1912 through to 1925 tell us that Herbert and Helen remained at Littledean. Herbert died on 13^th June 1925 just a couple of months short of his seventieth birthday. The Gloucestershire Echo carried a short article on 17^th July that year commenting on a remarkable coincidence.

“By a coincidence, two veteran Indian Army officers of the same, name and rank both died on June 13^th, and both were buried on Tuesday. The elder, Colonel Alfred George Hutchins, died at Exmouth in his 85^th year, and the younger, Colonel Herbert Leonard Hutchins, dies at Berkhamsted at the age of 69.

What is equally extraordinary is that the burial records for Rectory Lane Cemetery reveal that the burial which proceeded Herbert’s had taken place on the 13^th June and was that of Alexander Macwhirter Renny.  He was a contemporary of Herbert’s, having been born in 1854, and he too had been a colonel in the Indian Army. It is interesting to speculate whether the two retired colonels knew each other; did they spend time together reminiscing about their days in India?

The Gloucestershire Echo was, however, incorrect in one particular respect in its report of Herbert’s death. Although buried in Berkhamsted, Herbert did not die there. His death certificate states that he died in Northampton as a patient at St Andrew’s Hospital for Mental Diseases for the Upper and Middle classes.

St Andrew’s had originally been Northampton General Lunatic Asylum admitting both private patients and paupers, but when a second asylum, St Crispin’s, was opened in Northampton specifically for paupers, the asylum became Northampton General Lunatic Asylum for the Middle and Upper Classes.

The Hospital report for 1924 gives us some idea of the regime at St Andrews. Lots of activities were provided for the patients. Sports included cricket, hockey, football, tennis and golf. Indoor activities included dances, concerts, Bridge and whist drives, chess and billiard tournaments. Divine service was provided as were regular trips to the sea. Fees were payable. The cost of maintaining a patient was £4 9s 7d per week. Some 30% of the patients paid in excess of this some. The lowest rate was 2 guineas per week, but patients who could not afford that were accepted with the difference between the minimum fee and what they could afford being made up from charitable sources. 

The mental affliction from which Herbert suffered and which caused him to be admitted to the hospital is not known. He is recorded in the Electoral Roll for Spring 1925 as living in Kings Road, so presumably he was admitted to the hospital not many weeks before his death in June. The cause of death recorded on his death certificate was chronic myocarditis – heart disease – from which he had been suffering a number of months before his death.