Envoy Darkie Hutton

The Salvation Army has always been ready to celebrate the conversion of perhaps the most unlikely characters, and some of these have found wider fame on picture postcards. 'Darkie' Hutton is one such.

After being released from jail at the end of a six-month sentence for theft, Darkie Hutton was blackmailed into joining the infamous criminal group, the Brotherhood of the Red Hand. He had been a thief from the age of eight, when he stole from his tobacconist former employer, and whilst still a child he ran away to sea. Twice he was court-martialed and, still in his 'teens, was drummed out of the Navy.

Shortly afterwards, he became a pupil of the notorious villain, Charles Peace. Theft, house-breaking, armed robbery - all played their part in Darkie's catalogue of crime. His first job for the Brotherhood ended in disaster. Whilst making his getaway from a jewelry robbery in Reading, the police pounced on Darkie, and caught him in possession of £20,000-worth of jewels. The result was a long stretch in Dartmoor Prison. Upon release, Darkie resumed his life of crime. Soon he was leader of the Red Hand, deriving great pleasure from the notoriety and prestige which this afforded him.

It was Salvation Army Captain Tom Watts who persuaded Darkie to attend his first Army meeting. Darkie listened to testimonies of converted drunkards, 'criminals and the like. Twenty-three years of prison, chains and leg-irons had changed nothing. He reasoned that, if the Lord could change the lives of the men at the meeting, there was hope for him yet. From his first visit to the Mercy Seat onwards, Darkie's life began to change. A week later, his wife came to a meeting and she too was saved.

By special permission of Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone, Darkie would wear his prison clothes and chains to lead Army meetings. Undercliffe (Bradford) Corps was the first at which he conducted special meetings, and soon ex-convict and drunkard Darkie Hutton was preaching all over the country, with spectacular success. Requests for him to "special" flooded in from corps everywhere. Darkie remained faithful to the end, conducting many great soul-saving campaigns, until his Promotion to Glory in 1921.

He was never proud of the exploits of his past life, but told of them with such a sense of shame that he could have sunk so low, yet rejoicing that God had shown him there was a better way for all who would accept His Salvation.

(Note: Cards published as part of "The Salvation Army Series of Pictorial Post Cards, Specially Engraved and Printed by Milne, Tannahill & Methven, The Specialists in S.A. Printing, Perth, N.B." (N.B. = Scotland)