b. 16/12/1883 Mt Carmel, Illinois, USA. d. 09/04/1954 Mt Carmel, Illinois, USA.
Bellenden Seymour Hutcheson (1883-1954) was born in the United States at Mount Carmel, Illinois on 16th December 1883. A graduate of the Northwestern University Medical School, Dr Hutcheson practised for several years in the American West. He renounced his citizenship in order to fight in the Canadian army during the First World War.
Bellenden S Hutcheson VC MC
After he enlisted at Exhibition Camp, Toronto on 14th December 1915, Hutcheson became a captain in the Canadian Army Medical Corps, which was attached to the 75th (Mississauga) Battalion. In 1917 he was diagnosed with pleurisy and was hospitalized at Perkins Bull Convalescent Hospital in Putney Heath, England. He was later treated at Ravenscroft Military Hospital in Seaford, England.
On 2nd September 1918 Captain Hutcheson was treating wounded soldiers under intense shelling and small arms fire in the Drocourt-Quéant line near Cagnicourt in France. After ensuring that all of the wounded men had received care, he attended to a seriously wounded officer and evacuated him to safety. Shortly after, he spotted a wounded sergeant in front of the Canadian lines and rushed forward in full view of the enemy to tend to his injuries. He was gazetted for the VC on 13th December 1918.
Nine days previously, he had been gazetted for the Military Cross for “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Before the battalion reached its jumping off position the enemy put down a heavy barrage and many casualties were sustained. This officer worked unceasingly in attending to and dressing the wounded under heavy fire in open ground. During the mopping up of a village he passed through the streets several times attending to the wounded. He also voluntarily dressed nearly 100 enemy wounded who had been left behind.”
Following being demobbed in 1919, he returned to the US and resumed his medical practice in Illinois. He died on 9th April 1954 in Cairo, Illinois and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Mount Carmel. His medals are not publicly held.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: TORONTO SCOTTISH REGIMENT MUSEUM, TORONTO.
BURIAL PLACE: ROSE HILL CEMETERY, MOUNT CARMEL, ILLINOIS, USA.
SECTION B, LOT 145, GRAVE C
Acknowledgement:
Bill Mullen – Images of the Hutcheson VC Grave in Mt Carmel, Illinois.