Oliver Hutchinson

Oliver George Hutchinson (6 May 1891 – April 1944) was a British businessman who played a key role in popularising John Logie Baird's invention of television. Hutchinson had met Baird while both were apprentices at the Argyll Motor Works in Glasgow. During the First World War, he served as an officer in the Army Cyclist Corps and Tank Corps. After the war Hutchinson developed several successful businesses in London, including one selling soap. After meeting Baird by chance he agreed to support his work on the first television system. Hutchinson provided funds and publicised the operation, and even appeared as the subject of the first public demonstration of the technology in 1926. Hutchinson was later joint managing director of the Baird Television Development Company and was present in New York when the first trans-Atlantic broadcast was made in 1928.

Early life Hutchinson was born in Belfast on 6 May 1891. Hutchinson transferred to the Army Cyclist Corps on 10 June 1915. He held the temporary rank of lieutenant when he was promoted to the temporary rank of captain on 19 August 1916. By the war's end Hutchinson had transferred to the Tank Corps.

Television After the war, Hutchinson lived in London, where he developed several successful businesses. By then, Baird had also moved to London. By coincidence, both men became involved in the soap industry, with Hutchinson's "Rapid Washer" product competing with Baird's "Speedy Cleaner". The two men met by chance on The Strand in 1922, when Hutchinson recognised Baird from their apprentice days, and they took tea together. Baird told Hutchinson about the experiments that he was then carrying out to develop the first television. Hutchinson saw the potential, and provided Baird with funds for equipment and premises. With English journalist Sydney Moseley, Hutchinson helped generate interest in the invention by writing positive press articles predicting it would become as successful as radio. During the demonstration, Baird transmitted the live image of Hutchinson's face as a picture. This is regarded as the first successful demonstration of the technology, with Baird's earlier work having resulted in little more than silhouettes. Hutchinson appeared in the first successful photograph taken of a television picture, made by Lafayette Ltd and published in The Electrician in June 1926.

Hutchinson founded the Baird Television Development Company in 1927 to acquire the rights to television from Television Limited and became its joint managing director. He persuaded Edward Manville and Oliver Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill, to join the board. In 1928, Hutchinson travelled to Hartsdale, New York, with engineer Ben Clapp. The pair demonstrated a television system that successfully received moving images transmitted from London in the first trans-Atlantic television broadcast.