Family and friends of Dennis Hutchings attend unveiling of memorial stone to veteran in NI

A small service took place at an Army barracks in Co Down at the weekend to unveil a memorial in honour of English veteran Dennis Hutchings, who died of Covid in Belfast last year.

Mr Hutchings, 80, had been on trial for attempting to murder and cause grievous bodily harm to John Pat Cunningham. Aged 27, he was shot as he ran from an Army patrol near Benburb, Co Tyrone, in 1974.

The trial was adjourned when he tested positive for Covid in October 2021 and he died soon after in the Mater Hospital in Belfast. His funeral was held in Plymouth.

However, NI friends of Mr Hutchings organised their own small memorial service for him on Saturday, unveiling a special memorial stone at Palace Barracks in Holywood.

It was attended by four family members and 40 others, mainly military and RUC veterans. A lone piper played.

John Ross, a Parachute Regiment veteran of 23 years from east Belfast and a member of NI Crown Forces Veterans for Justice lobby group, told the News Letter: “The memorial stone was unveiled in the Palace Barracks Memorial Garden which contains several memorials to other veterans, so it was very fitting.

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“Those who attended included Dennis’s brother Rex Hutchings and his partner Helen, and Dennis’s son and daughter John and Dawn Hutchings.

“It was all the more poignant for Rex as he had not been able to attend his brother’s funeral as he had Covid. We wanted to perpetuate Dennis’ memory here in Northern Ireland.”

He noted Dennis’ courage in opting to appear for trial in person in NI despite being 80 years of age and terminally ill.

“Dennis insisted he was completely innocent of all charges from the outset,” Mr Ross said.

“He also ignored his doctor’s recommendation that he take a medical exemption from the prosecution. He had been cleared of all wrongdoings in an investigation at the time of the shooting.

“He was on kidney dialysis and was only able to appear in court three days a week as a result. He was actually terminally ill.”

The service was conducted by Rev George White, a retired Free Presbyterian minister, and the memorial stone was unveiled by former UDR Greenfinch Mel Brown, who had been very close to Dennis, he said.

It was a private service, with no political representatives present, he added.

His family had been back and forward to support him in court, but in the end, he was alone when he died from Covid in a hospital in Belfast, he said. “So he died alone far away from his family.”

“It was very much about remembrance. The minister stressed the biblical importance of remembrance.”

The motto of Mr Hutchings’ regiment, the Life Guards, was inscribed on the stone: ‘Shamed be he who thinks evil of it’.

Mr Ross added: “We thought that was particularly appropriate. There was absolutely no evidence – neither forensic nor witness evidence – to refute Dennis’ version of events on the day.

“Due to his ill health there was absolutely no obligation on him to go to court but he was absolutely determined to face his accusers, clear his name and highlight what we see as a campaign of persecution of Operation Banner veterans.”

“He was under no obligation to come to Belfast and face trial, as he was terminally ill. But as I said at the memorial service, he was a man who epitomised dignity, courage and humility.

“On one of the wreaths there was a picture of Dennis on the day that he arrived in Northern Ireland to start his trial as he waved from the doors of the courthouse to his supporters.

“He was resplendent in his Household Division waistcoat and tie and he wore his medals to court.

“If you met him and spoke to him you just couldn’t dislike him. So to sum him up, he was a good man.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said the event was a private service. “The Palace Barracks Memorial Garden is not an officially recognised MoD memorial,” he said. “These memorials are requested, erected and maintained at private expense. “The National Memorial Arboretum is the official memorial to the Armed Forces since the end of the Second World War.”

Mr Hutchings was in the Army for 26 years and served in NI in the early 1970s.

In April it was revealed that Mr Hutchings’ partner was taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming discriminatory treatment by the British government.

Kim Devonshire said she will “continue Dennis’ fight” and take a case to the Strasbourg court on “behalf of British Army veterans”.

Before he died, Mr Hutchings took a case that veterans were being subject to discriminatory treatment, in breach of the Human Rights Act, to the European Court of Human Rights.

Ms Devonshire said: “We would ask that Dennis’ name be cleared, as was his dying wish, but more importantly that no other veteran should have to endure the pain, trauma and humiliation in their later years of such determined and unrelenting prosecutions.”

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