What started out as an attic renovation of an English mansion has led to a revelation for the family of a Canadian soldier in the Second World War.
Bruce Hutton is anticipating the return of a care package first sent to his father, Lance-Cpl. Ross Hutton, back in 1943.
“I was excited that an 83-year-old package was discovered,” said Hutton from his home in Rocky Mountain House, Alta. “I phoned my son and told him about it. I started crying, so it’s emotional. It brings back memories of Dad.”
The package addressed to Lance-Cpl. Hutton was discovered stashed under some floorboards during the renovation of a mansion near where Hutton served with the Second Battalion Royal Canadian Engineers (2 Bn RCE) in Surrey, England.
A customs label of a Second World War care package shows a list of contents, including cake, meat and socks. (Ben Dodson)
Bruce Hutton says the package appears to have been sent by an aunt.
“The package was [addressed] to Ross Hutton, and it was from his Aunt Ethel. I just couldn’t believe that they actually found it,” he said.
The white linen bag hasn’t yellowed and still has the original customs form, listing items like cake, meat, socks and gum. Inside, it still contains cigarettes, bouillon cubes, tea bags and cans of baked beans and tomato juice.
The care package included items like tinned baked beans, gum and cigarettes. (Ben Dodson)
Bouillon cubes found in the care package lasted more than 80 years stashed away. (Ben Dodson)
“Eighty-three years is a long time to sit under the floorboards of a house, but now it will be viewed by many people who will appreciate it,” said Bruce Hutton.
Ross Hutton grew up near Minnedosa, Man., and enlisted in 1941 as a 17-year-old, joining the 2 Bn RCE, which was active in Surrey doing construction work.
In 1942, the battalion helped build the Dunsfold Aerodrome, a bomber base about an hour south of London that would be used in the Berlin airlift of 1948-49, and decades later became the filming location for the BBC series Top Gear.
In late 1943, Lance-Cpl. Hutton was injured in a jeep accident, receiving injuries he never fully recovered from.
Until recently, that was about all Bruce Hutton knew of his father’s service.
“He didn’t tell us about the war. He refused to comment or give us any information.”
Except for one thing.
“He did tell me that he would never eat mutton again as long as he lived,” Hutton said, explaining his father sometimes did talk about the food he ate while serving.
“I think that’s why a package like this was so important to [soldiers]. It had something other than the run-of-the-mill daily food that they got.”
Not far from Dunsfold in Godalming, Surrey, sits a two-storey, red-brick Victorian mansion called Northanger House.
For a while during the Second World War, it was used as a regimental headquarters by Canadians training in the area.
Northanger House in Godalming, Surrey, as seen today. The mansion once served as a regimental headquarters for Canadian soldiers during the Second World War. (Ben Dodson)
Hutton believes his father was sent there to convalesce from his injuries and hid the package in the attic for safekeeping.
Northanger House has since been subdivided into four separate residences. Ben and Sharyn Dodson own one of them. In 2014, workers were renovating their attic when a white linen bag addressed to Lance-Cpl. Hutton was found, hidden beneath the attic’s floorboards.
The Dodsons declined to be interviewed by CBC News, but in an email, Ben Dodson explained that he wanted to find out who Ross Hutton was and if his descendants were interested in the history.
An earlier attempt to locate the family, after the package was first found, came up empty. Dodson held on to the package. The mystery of how it got there and who the soldier was stuck with him..
This fall, Dodson decided to try again.
The return address on the package simple reads ‘Mrs. Albert Hutton, Bethany, Manitoba.’ (Ben Dodson)
The only clues were a simple return address handwritten on the bag — “Mrs. Albert Hutton, Bethany, Manitoba” — and a post-mark from Nov. 8, 1943, next to a few five-cent stamps of King George VI.
Bethany is a small hamlet of about 1,100 people near Minnedosa, Man.
A search on Ancestry.com confirmed Huttons lived in the area. Dodson then started to see if any were directly related to Ross Hutton.
“He had seen our website on the internet somewhere and contacted me. He was looking for information on the Hutton family,” said Lisa Bartley, archivist at the Minnedosa Regional Archives. Bartley is also a former teacher who had taught members of the Hutton family.
Given the early November date on the package, Bartley says it was likely that Hutton’s aunt was sending him a Christmas care package.
“The care and the love that she must’ve put into that,” she said. “This is pure social history. It’s a little snapshot of time in small-town Prairie Manitoba.”
Bartley reached out to a distant relative of Bruce Hutton, and after a few emails among family members, Hutton and Dodson were in direct contact.
Dodson sent him a handful of pictures of the care package, along with a description of his understanding of the history of Canadian military activities at Northanger House.
Hutton is grateful Dodson reached out.
“The only word that I can come up with that would adequately describe him is compassionate,” said Hutton.
The two decided the package and its remaining contents should go back to the family. The package is now on a return trip to Canada.
Repacked care package sits ready at Northanger House to be sent back to Canada. (Submitted by Ben Dodson)
Lance-Cpl. Hutton died in December 2003.
Bruce Hutton says he’s learning more about his father’s military service and what life at war was like. There are still lots of holes to fill in — including why the package was left behind.
After the package was hidden for 83 years, Hutton is determined to make sure it and his father’s story are never stashed away again.
“I’ve already made arrangements with the local glass shop here [in Rocky Moutain House] to build a plexiglass case for it and we’ll put it on display.”
