{{Short description|British Army general (1890–1981)}} {{for|the Canon of Windsor|Thomas Hutton (priest)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix= Lieutenant-General |name= Sir Thomas Hutton |honorific_suffix= {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCIE|CB|MC1}} |image= Sir-Thomas-Jacomb-Hutton.jpg |image_size= |alt= |caption= Hutton in 1938 |nickname= |birth_date= {{Birth date|1890|03|27|df=y}} |birth_place= Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England |death_date= {{Death date and age|1981|01|17|1890|03|27|df=y}} |death_place= London, England |burial_place= |allegiance= United Kingdom |branch= British Army |service_years= 1909–1944 |rank= Lieutenant-General |service_number= 19400 |unit= Royal Field Artillery<br>Royal Artillery |commands= Burma Command (1941–1942)<br/>Chief of the General Staff, India (1941)<br/>Western Independent District (1938–1940) |battles= First World War<br/>Arab revolt in Palestine<br/>Second World War |awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire<br/>Companion of the Order of the Bath<br/>Military Cross & Bar<br/>Mentioned in Despatches (5)<br/>Legion of Honour (France)<br/>Croix de Guerre (France)<br>War Merit Cross (Italy) |spouse= {{marriage|Isabel Emslie Hutton|1921|1960}} |relations= |other_work= }} Lieutenant-General '''Sir Thomas Jacomb Hutton''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|sep=,|KCIE|CB|MC1}} (27 March 1890 – 17 January 1981) was a British Army officer who held a variety of vital staff appointments between the First and Second World Wars, ultimately commanding the Burma Army during the early stages of the Japanese conquest of Burma in early 1942.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma/collection/h/hu90-001/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209143956/http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma/collection/h/hu90-001/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-12-09|title=King's Collections : Archive Catalogues : HUTTON, Lt Gen Sir Thomas Jacomb (1890–1981)|website=kingscollections.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-29}}</ref>
Hutton was married to Scottish psychiatrist Isabel Emslie Hutton.<ref name=":0">{{Cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71709|title=Hutton, Isabel Galloway Emslie [née Isabel Galloway Emslie], Lady Hutton (1887–1960)|year=2004 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/71709}}</ref>
==Early life and First World War== Thomas Jacomb Hutton was born on 27 March 1890 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, the eldest son of William Henry Hutton. He was educated at Rossall School and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. On 23 December 1909, after passing out from Woolwich, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Field Artillery.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28329|page=340|date=14 January 1910}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Promoted on 23 December 1912 to lieutenant,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=28674|page=9784|date=24 December 1912}}</ref> Hutton served with the RFA on the Western Front throughout the First World War,<ref name=":1" /> being promoted to captain in 1915 and brevet major in 1918. He became staff qualified, and served in 1918 as a General Staff Officer Grade 3 (GSO3) and as a brigade major from 1918 to 1919.<ref name=":1" />
==Between the wars== From 1919 to 1920, Hutton served in the War Office as the Assistant Military Secretary and from 1923 to 1924 as the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General.<ref name=":1" /> He met Scottish psychiatrist Isabel Galloway Emslie in Constantinople and they married in 1921.<ref name=":0" />
After attending the Staff College, Camberley, as a student from 1922 to 1923,<ref name=":1" /> Hutton was a General Staff Officer Grade 2 (GSO2) on the staff of Eastern Command from 1924 to 1926, in the eastern counties of Britain.<ref name=":1" /> He was promoted to the substantive rank of major in 1927, and from 1927 to 1930 he was the Military Assistant to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) and later attended the Imperial Defence College.<ref name=":1" />{{sfn|Smart|2005|p=165}} He was "double jumped" to the rank of full colonel in 1930 and served from 1933 to 1936 as General Staff Officer Grade 1 (GSO1) in the Directorate of Military Operations in the War Office.<ref name=":1" />
In 1936, Hutton served in the British forces in Palestine during the Arab revolt.<ref name=":1" /> From 1936 to 1938 he was the GSO1 (Chief of Staff) in the 1st Infantry Division, which was sent to Palestine. He was promoted to major-general and appointed General Officer Commanding (GOC) Western Independent District, in India in 1938.<ref name=":1" />
==Second World War== In 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, Hutton was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff, GHQ India.<ref name=":1" /> The following year he was promoted lieutenant-general and became Chief of the General Staff at GHQ India.<ref name=":1" />
===Burma Army=== In 1942, Hutton was appointed General Officer Commanding Burma Command,<ref name=":1" /> which was facing imminent invasion by Japanese troops. Burma Army was subordinated to the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, of which Archibald Wavell was Commander in Chief.
Hutton initially ordered his subordinates to fight as close to the borders as possible. Some of them thought that he was doing so on Wavell's orders, but Hutton actually wished to gain time for reinforcements to arrive.{{sfn|Allen|1984|pp=25–36}} This resulted in the defeat of the ill-equipped and badly-trained Burmese and Indian formations that tried to fight close to the frontier.
Hutton now considered that Rangoon, the capital, could not be defended. He attempted to divert reinforcements to ports further north. Wavell considered this to be defeatism, and stormed at Hutton in front of witnesses at a meeting on 28 February. He did not argue back, feeling that a dignified silence was the best rebuke.{{sfn|Allen|1984|p=48}} Hutton had already been superseded by General Harold Alexander as GOC of Burma Army, and appointed Alexander's Chief of Staff, an embarrassing appointment he held until Burma Army was disbanded later in the year.
During the crisis in Burma in 1942, it was felt by some senior officers (such as General Sir Alan Hartley, the acting Commander in Chief in India), that Hutton made a good chief of staff but was not fitted for command in the field.{{sfn|Allen|1984|pp=50–51}} Hutton subsequently served until 1944 as Secretary of the War Resources and Reconstruction Committees of Council, India.<ref name=":1" /> In 1944, he retired from the army.<ref name=":1" />
==Later career== Hutton held a variety of Civil Posts after his retirement: from 1944 to 1946, he was Officiating Secretary, Viceroy's Executive Council in India.<ref name=":1" />
==References== {{Reflist}}
===Bibliography=== *{{cite book|last=Allen|first=Louis|title=Burma: The Longest War|publisher=Dent Publishing|date=1984|isbn=0-460-02474-4}} *{{cite book|first=Raymond|last=Callahan|title=Churchill and His Generals|year=2007|publisher=University Press of Kansas, 2007|isbn=978-070061512-4}} *{{cite book|first=Nick|last=Smart|title=Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War|isbn=1844150496|year=2005|location=Barnsley|publisher=Pen and Sword Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KoiuGAAACAAJ}} *{{cite book|last=Barclay|first=Brigadier General Cyril Nelson|author-link=C. N. Barclay|title=On Their Shoulders: British Generalship in the Lean Years, 1939-1942|publisher=Faber & Faber|year=1964}}
==External links== *[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/cats/hutton/hu90-0.htm LHCMA catalogue: Papers of Lt Gen Sir Thomas Jacomb Hutton, MC, KCB, KCIE (1890-1981)], King's College London Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. (URL accessed 9 June 2006) *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050319231358/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,766381,00.html "By Air and Foot"], Time ''magazine'', 16 February 1942. British versus Japanese, Rangoon; (archive article), URL accessed 9 June 2006) *[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_H02.html#Hutton_TJ British Army Officers 1939–1945] *[https://www.generals.dk/general/Hutton/Thomas_Jacomb/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Sir Eric de Burgh}} {{s-ttl|title=Chief of the General Staff, India|years=May–December 1941}} {{s-aft|after=Sir Edwin Morris}} |- {{s-bef|before=Kenneth McLeod}} {{s-ttl|title=Burma Command|years=1941–1942}} {{s-aft|after=Sir Harold Alexander}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutton, Thomas Jacomb}} Category:1890 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies Category:British Army generals of World War II Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Category:People educated at Rossall School Category:Recipients of the Military Cross Category:Royal Artillery officers Category:Military personnel from Nottingham Category:British Army lieutenant generals