COMMEMORATED IN PERPETUITY BY THE

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

George enlisted to the Royal Garrison Artillery, 7 Ammunition Sub Park (66 Company ASC). His job was to transport ammunition and keep the Heavy Artillery companies supplied. Each Division of the army had a certain amount of motorised transport allocated to it, although not directly under its own command. The heavy guns and howitzers of the RGA, with attendant equipment and ammunition, needed motorised transport to haul them. The MT Companies called Ammunition Parks operated dumps, or stores, of ammunition. The larger calibres of artillery shells required special mechanical handling equipment. Sergeant George Hutchings embarked to France on 4 October 1914. Namur was attacked by the Germans on 20 August 1914; the forts were destroyed by heavy artillery, and at midnight on 23-24 the garrison was evacuated. The town then remained in German hands until the end of the war. Although Sergeant George Hutchings survived until after the Armistice, tragically he succumbed to Influenza and died at the Casualty Clearing Station near Namur just 5 weeks later on 16th December 1918. George Hutchings’s passing from the influenza pandemic which swept the world in 1918/1919 seems a cruel irony, having survived the war and the horrors he must have seen around him. [See accompanying article on Influenza]

George’s younger brother Alan also served in WW1 (14011 Private Alan Hutchings, Royal Berkshire Regiment). Unfortunately, Alan was killed, aged 18, in the first year of the war on 25/9/1915 at the Battle of Bois Grenier, France. Both Alan and George appear on the Steventon War Memorial, although their surname is spelt Hutchins – incorrectly, without a ‘g’.

Belgrade Cemetery contains 249 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, most of them dating from the ten months when casualty clearing stations were then posted to Namur after the Armistice. There is also one burial of the Second World War. 

George’s birth name is Prior, but his father (Ambrose) took, and used, the surname Hutchings (his mother's maiden name). Even though Ambrose started to use the surname Hutchings in 1871 (Electoral Roll), the Prior family name in Steventon goes all the way back to 1817. Ambrose and Ellen first lived at Milton Lane, after their wedding in 1885. George was their 4th child out of 9 - 4 brothers, 2 sisters (plus 2 siblings died young). After a brief spell at the farm cottages in Hanney Road (1911 Census), in 1912/13 23 The Green became the long-term family home. Continuing there until at least 1945 when Ellen died. This is supported by the fact that Ellen is listed as Widow at this address in the 1939 Register, living there with her daughter and son in law. Since 1900, George, his siblings and his parents only ever appear on any Census as Prior, but all Steventon Electoral rolls as Hutchings. George married Amy Rose Whiting of Buckland in 1917. They set up home at Church Square, Buckland, Faringdon, Berks. After George's death in 1918, Amy re-married. Hence she appears on the CWGC index as Amy R. Hayes (formerly Hutchings), of 21, Southend Terrace, Cricklade Rd, Swindon, Wilts (Next of Kin).