LIEUT. KENNETH LOTHERINGTON HUTCHINGS, 4TH BATTN. THE KING'S LIVERPOOL REGT. (S.R.), ATTD. 12TH BATTN. KILLED IN ACTION AT GINCHY, SEPTEMBER 3RD, 1916. AGED 33. At the School 1897—1902 (Manor House and Day Boy). Lieut. Kenneth Lotherington Hutchings was the fourth son of Dr. Edward John Hutchings and Mrs. Hutchings, of Highbury, Southborough, Kent, and a grandson of Dr. Henry Golebrooke, of Southborough. He came of a cricketing family. His father was an enthusiastic player, while one of his uncles was in the Oxford XL in 1880, and the other, Henry Lotherington Colebrooke (D.B. 1879—83), was Captain of the School XL in 1882. K. L. Hutchings entered the School in January, 1897, as a boarder in Manor House, but in January, 1900, he became a Day Boy, and left in July, 1902, having been a House Praepostor since January, 1900. He was in the XL for five years, 1898—1902, and Captain 1901 and 1902, and was also in the Racquets Pair in 1901. In his last three years he won the Dale Cup. The following appreciation of him as a cricketer appeared in the Daily Telegraph:— " By his death on the field of battle one of the greatest cricketers has been taken from us. A typical man of Kent, in that his cricket was splendidly characteristic of his county—bright, free, sparkling—Hutchings at his best was the most engaging batsman of his day. So long as he was at the wicket he brought out all that was best in a glorious game. On any wicket, against any bowling—circumstances did not matter—he was magnificent. His dash, his vigour, his quick eye, his indifference to care, as we understand care among crack batsmen, made him unlike any other cricketer; not in this generation have we seen his equal. At school at Tonbridge he was already an uncommon, even a great player. He was in his school team for five years, and in 1906, when he found a permanent place in the Kent eleven (he first appeared for his county in 1903), his success was so pronounced, and with such ease and grace and rapidity did he make a mountain of runs, that he was regarded as a sensation-maker and not, as those who knew him at Tonbridge realised, a greatly gifted and accomplished cricketer. " That he took the public by storm, however, was natural. He was practically unknown outside a comparatively small circle, and few expected that he would endow his batting with such a rich individuality as he did. Appropriately enough, it was at Tonbridge that he first made his renown, at one of those old-world festivals for which Kent cricket is famous. Middlesex were the visitors. Kent, having promised well, got into ditficulties. Kenneth Hutchings, at the top of his form the moment he arrived at the wickets, refused to yield. In a way, he played the whole of the Middlesex side by himself. " His bat was full of runs; his driving, always wonderful, was never better than it was in this particular match. That the game developed into one of touch and go did not affect him in the least degree. He hammered the bowling with gusto; as always, he refused to play for ' keeps,' and it was by reason of the fact that there was no one to stay with him that he was robbed of the rare distinction of scoring 100 in each innings, a distinction, however, which he won at Worcester in the following year, when he made 109 and 109 (not out). Thereafter the name of Kenneth Hutchings stood for all that was best and brightest in cricket. In 1906, thanks in a large measure to his consistency, Kent finished the season, for the first time in modern days, as the winners of the county championship. During that season the public made the belated discovery that there was probably more life and colour in cricket as it was played by Kent than in that of any other County.

HIS BEST SEASON. " Hutchings, in 1906, got four l00's, scored altogether 1,597 runs, and was the first batsman in all England. He did not afterwards live up to his wonderful form of that season, but so long as he was in the game he did many brilliant things. In 1909 he was one of the chosen team for England against Australia. At Manchester he failed to score, but at the Oval he made 59. In 1907—8 he was in Australia with the M.C.C. team, and at Melbourne, in the only test match which England won, he played a very fine innings of 126. He appeared fairly regularly in the Gentlemen v. Players games, and always enjoyed much popularity. And if, as has been very truly said, there was no finer batsman to watch than Hutchings, it can also be said that as a fieldsman, whether in the slips or in the deep field, he had no superior. His cricket in every way was full of vitality, and as a man and a colleague he will always be remembered as a charming personality." He made altogether 22 centuries in first class cricket. In his first season, 1906, his 1,597 runs in first-class cricket gave him an average of 53, while for Kent he scored 1,358, with an average of 64, including four centuries, his highest score being 176, v. Lancashire. In the Gentlemen v. Players match at Scarborough, in 1908, he made 120 in 100 minutes, and in 1910, when he was second in the list of first-class averages, he wound up with scores of 81 and 48 for Kent v. Rest of England. A well-known cricketer wrote of him : " He was a man who made the game worth playing; always cheerful and genial, always trying, always alert and keen, he was an ideal cricketer." When war broke out he was in business in Liverpool, and he was one of the first of the cricketing world to volunteer for service. This he did within two or three days of the declaration of war, and was gazetted to the Special Reserve of the King's Liverpool Regiment, September 24th, 1914. All his three brothers served and were very seriously wounded or accidentally injured whilst serving. The eldest, William Edward Colebrooke Hutchings (M.H. and D.B. 1893—98; Sc. Prae. 1898; XI. 1896—98, Capt. 1898 ; Racquets Pair 1898), enlisted in 1914 and served in France in 1915 as a Private in the Motor Transport. Having received a temporary commission in the R.A.S.C., dated September 4th, 1915, he was promoted Lieutenant in 1916, and Captain in December, 1917. He served from October, 1915, till March, 1916, in Salonika, and then in France till January, 1918, and was responsible for very important M.T. organisation in connection with the Arras Offensive, and then the Flanders Offensive, and Battles of Messines and of Ypres in 1917, and he was             " wounded," both ear-drums being injured by concussion in 1916, and again, this time by shrapnel in the groin, in January, 1918. He was invalided home and his health was found to be so seriously affected that he was unable to take up a Staff appointment to which he had been posted. The second, Frederick Vaughan Hutchings (M.H. and D.B. 1893—99 ; XL 1896— 99 ; Racquets Pair 1898), whose batting average in 1899 was 63 - 36, and who played several times for Kent, was gazetted Temporary 2nd Lieutenant, M.T., R.A.S.C., October 4th, 1915, but was very seriously injured in an A.S.C. motor accident, in which the driver was killed, near Aldershot, in the following November. In addition to injuries to leg and spine, he received serious internal injuries, and he relinquished his commission in April, 1917, on account of ill health caused by this accident, though he was temporarily employed under the Admiralty at Woolwich in 1918. The third, John Stewart Hutchings (M.H. and D.B. 1896—1900; XL 1900), enlisted in the 7th Royal West Kents in September, 1914, and like K. L., took a commission in the King's Liverpool Special Reserve, dated January 6th, 1915. He was promoted Lieutenant December 17th, 1915, and served in France with the 4th Battn. from February, 1916, till he was wounded in the right thigh on July 19th, 1916. He rejoined his Battalion at the Front in March, 1917, but was again very seriously wounded at the end of the following June, and he has never recovered from his injuries. Kenneth Hutchings went out to France April 26th, 1915, being attached till September to the 2nd Battn. of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and came home in December, 1915, to undergo an operation. He was gazetted Lieutenant December 17th, 1915, and in July, 1916, returned to France, being now attached to the 12th Battn. of his own Regiment, the King's Liverpool. From this time onward he was continually in the thick of the fighting, and on September 3rd, 1916, he was instantaneously killed by a machine gun whilst leading his men in an attack at Ginchy. A brother officer wrote : " I knew him before the war at Formby, and had a great admiration for him. Out here you get to know a man very intimately, and every one thought what a fine fellow he was." His CO. also wrote : " During the short time he was with this Battalion he gained the respect of officers and men as a keen, hardworking officer and a good sportsman."