Howard John Hutchinson, born on 8th October 1895, was admitted to King Edward’s School in September 1904. His father, Oliver, was a weighing machine manufacturer, and the family, including his mother, Laura, and four other siblings, lived at 62, The Parade, Shirley.
At School, Howard was very strong at Latin and English, capable at German but less successful at French. The School records do not mention him as a sportsman.
In 1914, Howard enlisted as a Private Soldier in the 1st Birmingham Pals Battalion (14th Royal Warwickshire Regiment), and was killed in France at High Wood, a site of particularly intense fighting during the Somme Offensive, on 30th July 1916, aged twenty. He is buried in London Cemetery, Longueval.