Major John Hutchings, who died on 10th July aged 86, had been suffering from dementia for several years. Before the onset of this for almost twenty years he wrote the obituaries of former members of The Essex Regiment both for The Eagle Magazine and the Royal Anglian Castle Magazine. In 2009 he was persuaded to write his own life story for The Eagle and the result was a ten-page account of a full and fruitful life; what follows is extracted from what he wrote.

John was very proud of the fact that he was an Essex man through and through. He was born there and apart from the time spent in the Army and his subsequent work in The Gulf he spent his whole life there. He became interested in the Army or more specifically The Essex Regiment when, at an early age at school in Chigwell he was inspired by a school teacher recently returned from war service with the Regiment.

He joined the school CCF at the earliest opportunity and in his own words became ‘army barmy’. From the CCF it was a natural progression to RMA Sandhurst and in February 1955 a commission into The Essex Regiment. After a short spell at the Regimental Depot at Warley he joined the 1st Battalion for the last ten months of their posting in Hong Kong.

He recalls an eventful voyage home aboard HMT Empire Fowey as the 1956 Suez Crisis closed the Suez Canal and the ship had to divert via the Cape. While the battalion went to Dortmund John was posted to Warley as a training subaltern and so missed the amalgamation with The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment in June 1958 when the two battalions combined to become 1st Battalion 3rd East Anglian Regiment.

From Warley John re-joined the Battalion for the final few months in Dortmund before returning to Warley for training prior to the Battalion’s posting to Malaya. For John part of this training was the Regimental Signals Officers’ course at Hythe and for the whole of that tour he was the RSO. On the Battalion’s return in 1962 John spent two years as Adjutant of the East Anglian Brigade Depot in Bury Sy Edmunds and then two more years as Staff Captain A at HQ West Midlands District in Shrewsbury. From there, now re-badged Royal Anglian he re-joined the Pompadours in Berlin where he planned the Battalion’s return to Tidworth. This turned out to be his last posting with the Regiment. 1967 was spent at the Royal Naval Staff College at Greenwich and from there, now a Major, he was posted to HQ AFCENT in Holland. He found his job there boring and he took advantage of a visit by the Military Secretary, Lt Gen Sir Richard Goodwin who happened to be Colonel of The Regiment to ask for a transfer.

Within a fortnight he had volunteered for secondment to the Trucial Oman Scouts as their DAA & QMG and so began a long association with The Gulf. At the conclusion of his secondment John was posted to 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers where he commanded B Company, firstly in Gibraltar and then Colchester. This included the inevitable tours in Northern Ireland, one of which was to take part in Op Motorman, the operation to retake the no-go areas of the Bogside and The Creggan in Londonderry. From the Fusiliers John went to the MOD for what became his last posting. He found this unfulfilling and after much deliberation he decided to seek pastures new and so resigned his commission.

However, life in London was not all dull as while in London he met Heather Stuart-Watson who he married in March 1974. They settled in Sible Hedingham with John expecting to find work in Essex. However, due to the economic crisis this did not work out and John returned to The Gulf as a contract officer with the newly formed Dubai Defence Force. During their four happy years there Heather had two children, Edward who was born in 1975 and Laura two years later. In 1979 they returned to UK where, based in a larger house in Castle Hedingham John worked with a company recruiting UK based workers for the Middle East. Two years later the family returned to The Gulf after John was offered the post of personnel manager for the Port Authority of Jebel Ali. Here he was responsible for a workforce of some 500 people from Europe, the Middle East and predominately the Sub-Continent.

The Port prospered and in 1987 his post was ‘arabised’ and the family returned home. Over the course of the next few years John worked as a legal practice manager and a Middle East consultant before becoming secretary of the Essex Agricultural Society helping to run the Essex County Show. He organised the 1998 and 97 shows but due to falling revenues the NFU, who owned the showground sold it. John did however remain secretary to The Essex County Farms Competition and the Essex County Ploughing Competition for several more years. He also sat on the General Committee of the Essex Regiment Association and was a Trustee of the Essex Regiment Museum. He finally retired in 2017 thus completing a full circle that started and ended in his beloved Essex.

At heart John was very much a countryman. He came from farming stock and in his youth enjoyed roaming the farms around his home often with a gun under his arm. He retained a countryman’s calm and quiet attitude throughout his life, he was never ruffled or non plussed. He had a glorious twinkle in his eye and a marvellous sense of humour that was always sharp but never unkind. He was the ideal regimental officer who put the welfare of his men first, knew them well and in return was respected by them. Sartorially he was always immaculate and would rib his friends who appeared in a manner of which he disapproved by looking them up and down and then, with raised eyebrows asking “who cuts your shirts”? The perfect gentleman, he was good company, fun to be with and will be missed by all who knew him.

He is survived by his widow, his two children and an elder sister.