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Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford

British politician (1893-1974)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ5534691 ↗
Source-derived summary

Geoffrey Clegg Hutchinson, Baron Ilford QC, MC, TD (14 October 1893 – 21 August 1974) was a British soldier, a barrister and Conservative Party politician.

Background and military career

Born in Prestwich, he was the youngest son of the cotton manufacturer Henry Omerod Hutchinson and his wife Elizabeth Clegg. He was educated at Cheltenham College and went then to Clare College, Cambridge, graduating with a Master of Arts in 1919. In 1920 Hutchinson was called to the bar by the Inner Temple and went to the Northern Circuit. He was nominated a Queen's Counsel in 1939 and was selected a bencher in 1946.

With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Hutchinson joined the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was attached to the British Expeditionary Force until the end of the war and during this time was wounded. In 1916 he was decorated with the Military Cross and in 1933 obtained a captaincy. He was promoted to major in 1937 and was awarded the Territorial Decoration in the next year.

After the begin of the Second World War he was reactivated in 1940 and sent with the then Expeditionary Force to the Franco-Belgian border.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford” is british politician (1893-1974). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Geoffrey, Hutchinson and Baron, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1893, 1974, 1919, 1920—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Geoffrey, Hutchinson and Baron is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british politician (1893-1974)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5534691. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1974, 1919 and 1920.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford primary sources, Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford archive and Geoffrey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Geoffrey Hutchinson, Baron Ilford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.