Last week we posted about the event of the laying of the foundation stone for the Caird Hall. Today I would like to focus on one particular picture of that event (the one above). And more precisely one person in that picture. Although you can’t see it in the version above, in the album all of these pictures are pasted into, there is a notation pointing to the man in the boater hat – the one on the right next to the man in the flat cap. As this album was created and kept by the Engineer’s Department he might have something to do with them. Now we can’t see his face or very much in the way of identifying features. But luckily the notation might give us a clue. Under the photograph is the letters “G.M.H.” – could this be his initials?
I decided to look up the 1914 directory to see if there was someone with those initials. No luck, or at least no-one who worked for the council. As he looks like her might be quite young, I skipped forward 10 years to 1925 and found George M Hutton, Chartered civil engineer, City Engineer’s Office. Was this the right man?
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I then decided to find him in the census records. The beauty of the 1921 census is it not only tells you someone’s occupation but also who they were working for. George is listed at 9 Blackness Avenue with his mother Margaret and three older sisters, Mary, Constance, and Dorothy. At this time George was 30, so would have been around 23 at the time of the stone laying ceremony. The question is was he in the department back in 1914? So next I looked up the 1911 census. The family (George, mum and three sisters) were then living at 304 Perth Road. George, then 20, was a Student Part Time Apprentice Civil Engineer at the Town Council. This sealed it for me, it must be him.
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George Matthews Hutton was born on 28th January 1891 in Invergowrie. His father was James Hutton, an architect, and his mother was Margaret (or Maggie) Calder, a teacher at the Orphanage on Broughty Ferry Road. They were married in 1876. Aside from George and the three girls they also had a son called James Gray Hutton. They lived at Cedar Villa in the Invergowrie, then at a house named Brantwood (now 13 Station Road) which was designed and built by dad James. Sadly he didn’t get to live there for very long as in a tragic accident James Hutton snr drowned whilst swimming at Montrose. Despite efforts to save him, nothing could be done. Young George and his brother James were on the beach, having been out for a walk with their father at the time he went swimming. They were only 10 and 14 at the time. After the father’s death, Margaret and the 5 children moved to 304 Perth Road and then on to Blackness Avenue. All 5 children attended Invergowrie Primary School and then Harris Academy, with James going to Dundee High School in 1898.
George left Harris in 1908. From his Institute of Civil Engineers application (available to view online via http://www.ancestry.co.uk), we know that he then studied at Dundee Technical College until 1913. At the same time he was apprenticed to James Thomson and Joseph B Paterson. This fits with the information in the 1911 census. He then got promoted to Assistant in 1912, where he served for 2 years. It was in this role he was pictured at the site of the Caird Hall foundation stones – the other man in a boater and the one in the flat cap may have also been engineers or their assistants. Whilst an Assistant he was also involved in creating the Parliamentary Plans for the 1913 Act for the Improvement Scheme, reclamation of land at Ninewells, town planning at the Law and Craigie, the bowling greens and tennis courts at Magdalen Green and plans for a ring road round Dundee (what would later be the Kingsway).
As with many young men born in the early 1890s, he joined the army in 1914 or possibly early 1915. At first he was a Corporal with the Scottish Horse, then transferred to the Black Watch and was then commissioned to the Royal Engineers as a 2nd Lieutenant. After his transfer to the Royal Engineers he was involved with building roads in Salonika and water supply in France under the C R E Calvary Corps. Sadly his brother James, who had moved to London and joined the London Scottish regiment was killed in November 1914. George was demobbed in early 1919 and returned to the City Engineers Officer and to his mother’s house on Blackness Avenue, where he lived in June 1921 for the census.
However just three months later he was married to Annie Kidd MacKenzie from Downfield. They went on to have six children over the next 14 years (James, Margaret, George, Elizabeth, Kenneth and Ronald). The couple moved to Hospital Wynd and then on to Albany Terrace and finally Burn Street in Downfield. By 1929 George was listed as being an assistant to the City Engineer, George Baxter. When Baxter retired in 1930 George Hutton seemed a shoo-in for the job. He was the only internal candidate but there were 27 other applicants, and sadly he lost out to David McLay from Troon. George then became Chief Assistant to McLay, and Deputy City Engineer around 1934. When David announced he would retire in 1949 George was nominated for the job and finally in early 1950 he got it. Sadly it was cut short when he died in January 1954 at the age of 62. However whilst in the job George oversaw what was to be the start of a great period of change for Dundee. The start of the post-war housing boom, the planning for town “improvements” (although he was critical of the Dobson Chapman report that kick started many of the schemes) and the discussions of building a shopping centre in the Overgate. He chose the names beginning with “Bal” for the Douglas and Angus estate. He also served on the Air Raid Committee which met as early as 1937 – well before the war started. After WW2 he was in the Civil Defence Corps. He was an elder at St Pauls Church and was a keen golfer.
Given the fact that he became City Engineer it seems very likely that one of his staff, marked his picture in the album. Had he pointed himself out in the picture? Or did someone recognise him? Either way we are thankful for this little bit of defacing of a document for the extra interest in the picture.
The Dundee City Archives Blog 
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