Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Seton Hutchison (20 January 1890 – 3 April 1946)Harold Bloom, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Infobase Publishing, 2008, p. 38 was a much-decorated British First World War army officer, military theorist, author, and fascist activist. He wrote adventure novels as Graham Seton and works of non-fiction as G. S. Hutchison.
Hutchison became a celebrated figure in military circles for his tactical innovations during the First World War and made a contribution to early spy fiction with his novel The W Plan (1929). He went into politics as a Liberal and later was active in fringe fascist movements which gained little support.
Early life Hutchison was born in Hampstead in January 1890, the son of James Alexander Hutchison, a merchant originally from Inverness,Richard Griffiths, Fellow Travellers on the Right, Oxford University Press, 1983 although he had settled in the newly created County of London.Gavin Bowd, Fascist Scotland – Caledonia and the Far Right, Birlinn, 2013, p. 49 In 1887, at St George's, Hanover Square, he had married Beatrice Jameson Waterlow, the daughter of a stationer in Reigate."No. 155, November 8, 1887" in Marriages Solemnized in the Parish Church of St George Hanover Square in the County of Middlesex, p. 78
Hutchison was one of three sons. He had an older brother, Colin Alexander, and a twin brother, Legh Richmond. In 1891, the family was living in Belsize Park, Hampstead, with four servants.1891 United Kingdom census, 50, Belsize Park, Hampstead, Ancestry.com, accessed 11 August 2026 His older brother rose to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy.Richard Woodman, Malta Convoys 1940–1943 (London: John Murray, 2003, ), p. 221 His twin brother worked in insurance in the City of London.1911 United Kingdom census, 19, Lambolle Road, London N. W., Ancestry.com, accessed 11 August 2026
Hutchison was educated in Hampstead and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Military career In November 1909, Hutchison was commissioned from Sandhurst into the King's Own Scottish Borderers as a second lieutenant.The London Gazette, Issue 28304, 5 November 1909, p. 8106 He remained with the regiment until 1913.J.M. Bourne, Who's who in World War One, Routledge, 2001, p. 138 In April 1913, he was commissioned as a lieutenant into the Special Reserve of Officers of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.The London Gazette, Issue 28711, 18 April 1913, p. 2812 Before the outbreak of the First World War, he spent time in colonial Africa, serving with the British South Africa Police and the Rhodesian Army.
In 1914, Hutchison returned to the British Army initially with the 2nd Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, and the Machine Gun Corps. In 1917 Hutchison, at the time a Major and Machine Gun Officer in the 33rd Division, convinced his commanding officer to group all the machine gunners, who were spread between four brigades, into a single company under his command, a scheme that was soon rolled out across the British Army resulting in the Machine Gun Corps becoming an independent branch of the army.Arnold D. Harvey, Collision of empires: Britain in three world wars, 1793–1945, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1992, pp. 374–375 He also became noted for his strong opposition to retreat and recounted a story of how in March 1918 he shot all but two of a group of forty British soldiers fleeing from the German Imperial Army.Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory: The Illustrated Edition, Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2009, p. 223
Hutchison's exploits made him a well-known figure. In August 1916, he was awarded the Military Cross, and in September 1918 he received the Distinguished Service Order “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while in command of three companies of machine gunners”. He was at the time a temporary lieutenant colonel. The London Gazette, Supplement 30901, 13 September 1918, p. 10867
A more unusual tribute followed in 1921, when the composer Kenneth J. Alford penned a marching tune, The Mad Major, in Hutchison's honour.Jeffrey Richards, Imperialism and music: Britain, 1876–1953, Manchester University Press, 2001, p. 431
On 27 May 1922, Hutchison resigned his commission in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and was granted the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel.The London Gazette, Issue 32712, 26 May 1922, p. 4063
Post-war activity Following his war service Hutchison took an interest in the welfare of ex-soldiers, forming the Old Contemptibles Association and then taking a leading role in setting up the British Legion.Thomas P. Linehan, British fascism, 1918–39: parties, ideology and culture, Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 136 Between 1920 and 1921 he was part of the Upper Silesian Commission and he would write that his time there gave him significant sympathy with the defeated Germans and convinced him that the Treaty of Versailles was an unjust settlement.Bowd, Fascist Scotland, p. 50
His first involvement in party politics came with the Liberal Party and he was its candidate in Uxbridge in the 1923 general election, when he doubled the Liberal vote, from 16 to 32 per cent, but failed to be elected."Uxbridge" in F. W. S. Craig British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 He later moved far away from liberalism, becoming a member of the reactionary, anti-democratic English Mistery soon after its foundation in 1930.Martin Pugh, "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!" – Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars, Pimlico, 2006, p. 71 This was in favour of bringing back the feudal system.E. H. H. Green, Ideologies of Conservatism: Conservative Political Ideas in the Twentieth Century (2002), p. 151 Hutchison had previously led his own similar group, the Paladin League, although it did not enjoy such a high profile as English Mistery. His other political sympathies included a strong strain of anti-Semitism, which he claimed was engendered by contempt for his Jewish classmates whilst at school in Hampstead, and support for the Social Credit economic ideas of C. H. Douglas.Bowd, Fascist Scotland, pp. 50–51 During the 1930s he corresponded with Ezra Pound, largely over their shared interest in Social Credit.Bowd, Fascist Scotland, p. 135
Fascism
Like a small number of British Army officers after the First World War, Hutchison was attracted to the militarism of fascism and he became involved in a number of movements. He initially claimed to have a large band of supporters, including the ludicrous claim that he had 20,000 followers in Mansfield alone, and attempted in 1931 to merge this unnamed group with the British Fascists (BF). However Rotha Lintorn-Orman broke off negotiations when it became clear that Hutchison had no movement at all to speak of.Richard Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918–1985, Basil Blackwell, 1987, p. 56
In November 1933, Hutchison formed his own group, the British Empire Fascist Party, and presented a 24-point programme for "National Reconstruction". This document, which was avowedly fascist unlike the BF (a group which, despite its name, had an underdeveloped ideology that was denounced by sometime member Arnold Leese as "conservatism with knobs on"Pugh, Hurrah for the Blackshirts!, p. 55), called for the destruction of the party system, the establishment of a corporate state with highly statist overtones, a stronger policy of imperialism and the removal of most rights from Britain's Jews.Thomas P. Linehan, British fascism, 1918–39, pp. 132–133
The same year, Hutchison also formed a group called the National Workers Movement, which changed its name to the National Socialist Workers Party before finally settling on the title of the National Workers Party. By this point, Hutchinson had become obsessed by Nazism and wrote widely in praise of the ideology and Adolf Hitler.Bowd, Fascist Scotland, p. 53 Despite its pretensions to appealing to the working class, the group only appeared to have one other regular member, Commander E.H. Cole, who was better known for his time in the Imperial Fascist League. Hutchison, who was paid by Nazi Germany as a publicist, led the group largely because of his antipathy towards Oswald Mosley and his much larger British Union of Fascists, whom he believed to be under Jewish influence.Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish political organizations: parties, groups and movements of the 20th century, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, p. 190 Like the Nazis, Hutchison was strongly critical of Freemasonry and mainline Christianity, calling for a move to Positive Christianity. However it was to Mosley that Hutchison lost his support, as members of the Nordic League initially sympathetic towards the National Workers Party were won over to the BUF by the efforts of the likes of J.F.C. Fuller and Robert Gordon-Canning.Stephen Dorril, Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley & British Fascism, Penguin Books, 2007, pp. 425–426
Despite his opposition to Mosley, there is a letter on file, written on British Union of Fascists headed paper, which is a communication between Hutchinson and Dr. Thost of the Nazi press in the UK, the letter written in German and signed, Heil Hitler! by Hutchinson.Public record Office KV-2-952_1 Further, German press articles allude to him being the leader of the British National Workers Party.
Hutchison nonetheless remained a vocal activist and in 1936 ran foul of Clement Attlee when he publicly claimed that the Labour Party politician was a Jew who was engineering a world war, supporting white slavery, and punishing the poor. Attlee filed a libel action against Hutchison, although this was ultimately withdrawn when Hutchison publicly apologised and disowned his claims.Robert Benewick, Political Violence and Public Order, Allan Lane, 1969, p. 266 Remaining a vocal Hitlerite, including declaring public support for the Anschluss, Hutchison became disillusioned by the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and by the time of the Invasion of Poland in 1939 he was praising Poland for standing up to what he had come to see as Hitler's bullying tactics.Bowd, Fascist Scotland, p. 60
Scottish nationalism Although he had spent much of his early years in London, Hutchison saw himself as first and foremost Scottish and wrote "I have always flatly declined to describe myself as 'British'".Bowd, Fascist Scotland, p. 180 In his 1945 essay "The Highland Division can Save Scotland", he declared his support for Scottish independence and declared his support for the Scottish National Party. He called for the return to the Clan system as a basis of a classless, corporatist Scotland, arguing that the Scots represented a unique race. His ideas were largely undeveloped, however, as Hutchison died the following year before expanding upon them.
Author Hutchison was a prolific author of espionage and adventure novels and also of military history.
Novels