Christopher William Clayton Hutton (16 November 1893 – 3 September 1965) was a British soldier, airman, journalist and inventor. Hutton is best known for his Second World War service with MI9, a secret branch of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence.Hutton, Clayton. Official Secret - The remarkable story of escape aids, their invention, production and the sequel. Max Parrish, London, 1960.Hutton pp. 1-12
From the end of 1939 until 1943, Hutton worked in MI9 under Norman Crockatt. MI9 was created to design and distribute escape and evasion aids for Allied servicemen, and to help servicemen return to Allied territory after escaping. Hutton's team identified suitable manufacturers for escape and evasion equipment and devised methods by which such aids could be sent to prisoner of war camps. Many prisoners' escapes were assisted by MI9's silk maps and other escape and evasion equipment.
Hutton's wartime escape and evasion work required him to account for shortages of materials such as silk and steel wire. He was often in trouble with the police and with official supply authorities but was supported in these matters by Crockatt. Facing financial difficulties after WWII, Hutton wrote a book, Official Secret, about his wartime experiences. He faced government opposition to his attempts at publication due to the concern of his work revealing sensitive information but was eventually able to publish in 1960.
Personal life Clayton Hutton was born in Birmingham on 16 November 1893. His parents were Christopher Hutton, brass manufacturer, and Edith Eliza Hutton, née Clayton. From January 1904 to December 1908, Hutton attended King Edward's School, Birmingham.C.W.C. Hutton's Pupil Record Card (H.S.B.), courtesy of KES School Archivist. Upon leaving school, Hutton worked for his uncle, William Clayton, at Clayton's timber business and sawmills in Saltley. In April 1913, Hutton was involved in the stunt of Harry Houdini's faked escape from a wooden packing case.Hutton, pp.3-8 This event strengthened his fascination with both stage performances and escapology; Hutton writes that his mother discouraged him from pursuing a career in performance.Hutton p.3
Hutton served in the First World War.Hutton pp. 1-12 Near the start of WWI he tried to enter the Royal Flying Corps but was rejected. On 26 December 1914 he was commissioned into the South Lancashire Regiment, later transferring into the Northumberland Fusiliers, and then into the Yorkshire Regiment. In this regiment he became a captain and was briefly an adjutant. He gained a British flying certificate on 9 May 1917.Great Britain, Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificates, 1910–1950. On the formation of the Royal Air Force in April 1918, Hutton was appointed an RAF Staff Captain and served in Salonica (then a city in the Kingdom of Greece. After two months' administrative work, he passed military pilot training and served briefly as a pilot before being demobilised in January 1919. After the war, Hutton held a variety of short-term jobs including that of a newspaper reporter. He later worked in publicity in the film industry, during which time he lived briefly in Berlin.
During WWII, Hutton interviewed at the War Office to contribute to the war effort and was recommissioned in May 1940 as a captain on the general list of the British Army. Following the interview with the War Office, he and four others were appointed to help Norman Crockatt set up a new section in the secret service department MI9. Their tasks included training fighting men in how to evade capture or escape if they found themselves in enemy-held territory. To these duties were eventually added the responsibilities of supporting escape and evasion lines and questioning returned prisoners after their successful escape. Hutton's role was to provide evasion and escape devices.
When Hutton began his MI9 duties, escape and evasion activities under Crockatt were based in Room 424 of the Metropole Hotel, Northumberland Avenue, London. Hutton kept away from the building as much as possible; according to his account, this was on Crockatt's orders.Hutton, pp.16–69 Instead, he worked out of a small room in the War Office buildings. As the result of a dispersion policy in October 1940Foot & Langley (1979), pp.68–69 the whole outfit was removed to Wilton Park Estate, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. Hutton writes that he was assigned a large office and a driver. Later in WWII, Hutton took his equipment and materials to a remote building on the estate to continue working undisturbed.Hutton, pp.129-144 He was described as a forceful character who worked ceaselessly to overcome both technical and bureaucratic obstacles when inspired by an idea. Hutton was promoted to the rank of major in 1943 and later the same year he retired from the British Armed Forces. After his retirement, he was still bound under the Official Secrets Act.
Escape and evasion equipment Brigadier Norman Crockatt headed MI9 during its existence and created its philosophy of "escape-mindedness" which became the focus of the training programme: it was emphasized that attempting to escape was the duty of every captured soldier.
Crockatt allowed Hutton to decide how to organise his work and choose its priorities;Hutton pp.11-15Foot & Langley (1979), pp. 55–59. Alfred John Evans, another member of MI9, had emphasized to Hutton that the three essentials for an escaper are maps, compasses, and food. Hutton therefore decided to concentrate on providing these needs to all combat personnel. He realised that a study of books about WWI experiences could provide insights. Short of time, he arranged for sixth form students at Rugby School, Crockatt's alma mater, to write summaries. Further help came from a colonel in the War Office who gave Hutton the script of a 1937 lecture by General Walther von Brauchitsch describing German experiences of running prison camps in WWI. From these materials Hutton was able to appraise the main necessities for a soldier to escape German prison camps.
In 1942, Clayton Hutton's Section in MI9 produced a top secret booklet named Per Ardua Libertas. This contained illustrations of escape and evasion maps and other aids. Copies were passed to a visiting delegation of American Intelligence Officers.
Fabric maps Hutton is credited with the reinvention of the use of silk for an escape and evasion map. He considered maps to be "the escaper's most important accessory" and thought they should be issued to all flight crew.Hutton pp. 15–35. Cloth maps as an escape aid were not a completely new idea: for instance, Allied prisoners of war used cloth maps sewn into their clothes to escape from the German Holzminden camp in July 1918.Cash, John Richard. n.d. A section of a map of Germany made to help Allied Prisoners of War (POW) to escape in July 1918 from Holzminden POW Camp in Germany to the Dutch border. The sections of map were sewn into the clothing. Item Held by the Australian War Memorial. Hutton's idea was that every serviceman should be issued with a compact map as one of three essential escape aids against the eventuality of being captured or shot down behind enemy lines. Hence he could attempt to evade capture or escape from detention. Hutton was surprised to discover that an acquaintance of his, Wallace Ellison, was not only a silk manufacturer in Macclesfield but had authored a book on prisoners and prison escapes from Germany during WWI.Hutton pp. 22–34.Ellison, Wallace (1918). Escaped! adventures in German captivity. W. Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. Ellison offered assistance to Hutton in the production of silk maps.
At first, Hutton had difficulties obtaining cartographic data from War Office and Air Ministry sources in London. The Edinburgh mapmakers John Bartholomew and Son Ltd. agreed to supply maps of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Balkans; the mapmakers waived copyrights in support of the war effort.
Once Hutton had the cartographic data, he needed a medium onto which he could print the maps. This medium needed to be quiet to unfold, not prone to disintegration when wet, maintaining its integrity when folded at the crease line, and concealable as very small packages. His first attempts to print on silk squares were unsuccessful since the minute details were blurred. This was solved by adding pectin to the ink. MI9 commissioned escape and evasion maps on silk, various synthetic cloth fibres, and special tissue paper. To increase their usefulness, most of these maps were printed double-sided.
A naval intelligence officer found a source of mulberry leaf paper, used in Japan, which had the texture of onion skins and excellent durability. Mulberry leaf paper could be folded tightly without permanent creases and did not fade or disintegrate when soaked in water.Hutton, pp. 27–34. Maps printed on mulberry leaf paper could be folded tightly and concealed inside a chess piece or a phonograph record. Hutton arranged for a greeting card printer to laminate mulberry paper maps inside playing cards. When soaked in water, these cards delaminated to reveal serviceable maps of a chosen area. The map areas to be provided to particular POW camps were identified by secret contacts with knowledge of the camps and regions.
A former cartographer for the Ministry of Defence, Barbara Bond, researched escape and evasion maps that were used during WWII and credits Hutton as the primary person behind the development of such maps. She estimated that at least 243 different mapping items were produced and printed by MI9, resulting in the distribution of almost two million maps to Allied combatants. The recipients were generally flight crew but some were special forces such as commandos and SOE personnel.
Compasses Hutton's work on compasses began around the time of the Dunkirk evacuation.Hutton, pp. 36–49. Hutton contacted several major instrument makers to request concealable compasses, without success. Hutton then discovered a small London firm, Blunt Brothers, who had a well-equipped laboratory and workshops. They assured him that they had the capability to make 5,000 small compasses in a week but lacked a necessary steel product. Hutton used his MI9 credentials to purchase the steel.
During the first week, Blunt Brothers made simple bar compasses that were about one inch (25 mm) long with luminous tips. These compasses would hang from any convenient piece of thread. Next, a smaller prototype was made with a housing cut from inch (6 mm) diameter brass tubing. With an outer screw thread, these compasses fit into the reverse of military uniform buttons and cap badges. When prison camp guards eventually discovered these miniature compasses, more were produced with a left-handed screw thread instead of the original right-handed thread. This fooled the guards for some time longer. Hutton and two of Blunts Brothers' instrument makers, George Waterlow and Dick Richards, developed the idea of magnetised safety razor blades. These pointed north when suspended from thread or when floating on water. To distinguish north from south, the first letter of the blade manufacturer's name indicated the north end of the blade.
When there was a shortage of steel points for the compass needles, Blunts Brothers began cutting these from readily available gramophone needles. In December 1940 the factory was bombed and the owners feared that production would stop due to potential bureaucratic delays in rebuilding the factory. Hutton successfully appealed to Lord Beaverbrook to have repairs made immediately. The firm's manufacture of bombsights may have contributed to Hutton's successful appeal.
Hutton's autobiography Official SecretHutton, figs.8–14. includes diagrams of the following hidden compass devices: Gillette safety razor with a hidden compass and map space in the handle;