the General Staff, GHQ India. The following year he was promoted lieutenant-general and appointed Chief of the General Staff in India. Burma Army In 1942, Hutton was appointed General Officer Commanding Burma Command, which was facing imminent invasion by Japanese troops. Burma Army was subordinated to the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, of which Archibald Wavell was Commander in Chief. Hutton initially ordered his subordinates to fight as close to the borders as possible. Some of them thought that he was doing so on Wavell's orders, but Hutton actually wished to gain time for reinforcements to arrive. This resulted in the defeat of the ill-equipped and badly-trained Burmese and Indian formations that tried to fight close to the frontier. Hutton now considered that Rangoon, the capital, could not be defended. He attempted to divert reinforcements to ports further north. Wavell considered this to be defeatism, and stormed at Hutton in front of witnesses at a meeting on 28 February. He did not argue back, feeling that a dignified silence was the best rebuke. Hutton had already been superseded by General Harold Alexander as GOC of Burma Army, and appointed Alexander's Chief of Staff, an embarrassing appointment he held until Burma Army was disbanded later in the year. During the crisis in Burma in 1942, it was felt by some senior officers (such as General Sir Alan Hartley, the acting Commander in Chief in India), that Hutton made a good chief of staff but was not fitted for command in the field. Hutton subsequently served until 1944 as Secretary of the War Resources and Reconstruction Committees of Council, India. In 1944, he retired from the army. Later career Hutton held a variety of Civil Posts after his retirement: from 1944 to 1946, he was Officiating Secretary, Viceroy's Executive Council in India. References Bibliography External links LHCMA catalogue: Papers of Lt Gen Sir Thomas Jacomb Hutton, MC, KCB, KCIE (1890-1981), King's College London Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. (URL accessed 9 June 2006) "By Air and Foot", ''Time magazine'', 16 February 1942. British versus Japanese, Rangoon; (archive article), URL accessed 9 June 2006) British Army Officers 1939–1945 Generals of World War II |- 1890 births 1981 deaths Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies British Army generals of World War II British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine Knights Commander of the Order