Edward Hutton (British Army officer)

In 1893, Hutton was named commandant of the military forces in New South Wales and promoted to the temporary rank of major general.[1] He was recalled in 1896 for a year's service in Ireland as chief staff officer in the Dublin district and at the Curragh.[1][7]

In 1898, he was again temporary promoted to the rank of major general and made General Officer Commanding the Militia of Canada.[7]

When the Second Boer War with South Africa was on the horizon, Hutton lobbied Canada to participate.[7] Without informing Canada's Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Hutton published mobilization plans in the Canadian Military Gazette. Laurier's government then received a letter of gratuity from Britain for its decision to aid them in the Boer region. Furious, Laurier announced Canada's refusal to send any contingents. In the end, political pressure was too great, and Canada played a role in the war. However, the row led to Hutton being recalled in early 1900.[7] Replying to a question in the Dominion House of Commons, Laurier said that the causes of the difference were that Hutton was insubordinate and indiscreet and deliberately ignored the authority of the Minister of Militia in the administration of his department.[8]

In early March 1900 Hutton left Southampton in the SS Tantallon Castle,[9] which arrived in South Africa later the same month. He took up the post as Commander of the 1st Mounted Infantry Brigade, a formation made up of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand troops.[7][10] This force was actively engaged both during Lord Roberts's advance from Bloemfontein and after the fall of Pretoria.[1] When the brigade was broken up in November 1900, he returned to the United Kingdom, where he was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for his services in the South African campaign.[11]

Hutton was in November 1901 appointed Honorary Colonel of the 7th (Militia) Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps.[12]

In late November 1901 it was announced that Hutton would become the first General Officer Commanding the Australian Military Forces.[1] He was recommended by Field Marshal Lord Roberts after several other officers had refused or were rejected by the government. He arrived in Australia in January 1902, and his main task became that of transforming six colonial forces into one national Australian Army.[6]

In 1904, Hutton promoted what was then a novel idea that Empire military attachés should be sent to witness the clash of Russian and Japanese forces in Manchuria.[13] Australian sources reveal a nested array of factors affecting the mission of Colonel John Hoad, who was detached by the Deakin government to serve with the Imperial Japanese Army in 1904–1905.[14] Along with other Western military attachés, Hoad had two complementary missions–to assist the Japanese and to observe the Japanese forces in the field during the Russo-Japanese War.[15]

Hutton resigned as GOC Australian Military Force at the end of 1904.[6]