John Hutchison : Short Biography

Born on 20 Mar 1877 in Clough, County Antrim, to James and Mary Jane Hutchison (nee Aiken), farmers. 

John, his wife, Sarah (nee Shaw), and infant son, John, travelled to Scotland in 1903 to find work in the coal mines at Salsburgh.  Sarah's older brother, John Shaw, was already living in Scotland.  Making the trip around the same time were Sarah's younger siblings, James, Mary and Jane, and John's younger brother, George.  There, John and Sarah had four more children between 1904 and 1910, James, Rachael, Mary Ann, and George (my grandfather).  When George was about a year old, John and Sarah left Scotland to emigrate to Australia with their young family and Sarah's brother, James Shaw, and his wife and child.  John found work in the coal mines in Ipswich, Queensland and that is where they settled.  About four months after they arrived, tragedy struck when they lost their younger daughter, Mary Ann, at 3 years old.  Two months later, Sarah was also gone.  This must have been devastating for John and the remaining four children.  He married a second time to Christina Carver, a Scottish immigrant with two small children of her own.  They had two more children together, which brought the total to eight.

On 17 Nov 1916, John enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force as a British subject, listing Christina and the seven children still at home as his dependents. He left Australia's shores on the Ascanius (A11) from Port Melbourne on 11 May 1917, travelling to Hurdcott in Wiltshire, England, then onto France. He was one of the lucky ones to return home on 19 Jun 1919 but he wasn't the same man who left.