Collection relating to the Hutchins family and their Second World War service

Informal outdoor portrait of VX61201 Private (Pte) Eric Everard Hutchins, 2/21st Battalion (Gull Force), of Woorinen North, Vic, and his mother, Mary Hutchins, in the yard of the family home. With his brothers VX61202 Pte David Arthur Hutchins and VX61203 Pte Fred Hutchins, Pte Eric Hutchins enlisted on 6 August 1941. The three brothers, along with a second cousin VX50460 Pte Thomas Hutchins, 2/21st Battalion, of Rainbow, Victoria, died as prisoners of war (POW) of the Japanese at Ambon, Netherlands East Indies. Pte Eric Hutchins died on 20 February 1942. In total, seven brothers of the Hutchins family enlisted and served overseas. Only three brothers, VX41288 Pte Ivan Robert Hutchins, VX37192 Bombardier Malcolm George "Mike" Hutchins, 2nd Anti Aircraft Regiment, and VX41229 Pte William Ernest (Bill) Hutchins, 2/22nd Battalion (later 2/23rd Battalion), survived the war and returned to Australia. They had served in the Middle East and New Guinea. Another brother VX41293 Private Alan Leslie Hutchins, 2/22nd Battalion (Lark Force), died as a POW at Rabaul, New Britain. VX74662 Sapper Fredrick Wallace, 9th Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers, another cousin of the Hutchins brothers, was a member of the recovery team which visited Ambon in October 1945 to uncover mass graves and identify remains, including those of his cousins, at Laha airfield and Tantoei camp.