CADETS HONOUR LOCAL MINISTER WHO BECAME WWI HERO

A challenge to find out more about the history of World War I by researching ‘local heroes’ has set Cullybackey teenagers on a trail of discovery about an unassuming Presbyterian Church Minister who became a hero of the Great War.

Jessica Beverland (15), Joel Roxborough (16) and Ellen Rea (15) chose as their local hero, Rev William Holmes Hutchinson whose heroism in the field of battle earned him the Military Cross.

Speaking of their choice, Jessica said, “Each year the Cadets are proud to be involved in the Remembrance Sunday service at Cunningham Memorial Church and we were intrigued to discover that a former Minister there had been a hero of the Great War, carrying out acts of bravery even though he was unarmed at the time.  We felt his story could give us a fresh insight into the nature of war – and we were right.”

William Hutchinson was born in 1882 in Dublin where he received his early education.  He moved to Belfast to take up a business career in the city, but his life took a different turn as he answered a call to the Ministry, graduating from Queen’s College in 1904 before taking his Divinity Course at Assembly’s College.  Rev Hutchinson worked for a short time alongside Rev Dr Charles Davy in Fisherwick Presbyterian Church in Belfast before, in 1910, he was ordained as minister of Cunningham Memorial Church in Cullybackey.  He was well known in the wider region as Moderator of the Synod of Ballymena and Coleraine, a post to which he was appointed in 1914.

In 1915, in the early days of the First World War, William enlisted as a private and served as a dispatch rider with the First Battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles.  In 1917 he received his commission as a chaplain, continuing to work with the same men, sharing their hardships. During his service he was gassed and wounded. 

Although he was an unarmed ‘soldier of God’, he played a more than active role in the final advance in Flanders and, in 1918 he was awarded the Military Cross. The official citation which accompanied the award records his devoted service to the wounded, carrying two seriously wounded men from the front line to the regimental post then returning to the front line so that he could continue to dress the wounds of injured soldiers … all while under heavy fire.

At the conclusion of the war, Rev Hutchinson returned to Cullybackey, where he completed a ministry of 22 years, before moving to Ballywillan Church in Portrush.

Rev Hutchinson died aged 71, in the 44th year of his ministry, and was buried at Islandmagee. 

Joel Roxborough thanked Rev David Murphy of Cunningham Memorial Church who helped the team with their research, saying, “It was great to have a helping hand to set us on the right track and the research really cemented our association with Cullybackey as well as building our understanding of The Great War.”

Ellen Rea added, “It was heartening to see that someone could hold fast to their personal and religious principles while serving King and Country.  I feel that the men who served alongside their hero Chaplain must have been incredibly inspired by him – I know that we have been.”

The information accumulated in the young people’s research to date will now become an important learning resource for others in the Cadet movement. 

Pictured below showing off the certificates which marked their participation in the research challenge are, from left, Cadet Lance Corporal Jessica Beverland (15), Joel Roxborough (16) and Ellen Rea (15)