Thomas Jacomb Hutton Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Jacomb Hutton KCB , KCIE , MC & bar ( 1890 – 1981 ) was an officer in the British Army , who held a variety of vital staff appointments between World War I and World War II , ultimately commanding " Burma Army " during the early stages of the Japanese conquest of Burma . Early career , and World War I . He was educated at Rossall School and Royal Military Academy , Woolwich . In 1909 , he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Royal Artillery . He served on the Western Front throughout World War I , being promoted to Captain in 1915 and brevet Major in 1918 . He became staff qualified , and served in 1918 as a General Staff Officer , Grade 3 ( GSO3 ) and as a Brigade Major from 1918 to 1919 . Inter - war years . From 1919 to 1920 he served in the War Office as the Assistant Military Secretary and from 1923 to 1924 as the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General . From 1924 to 1926 , he was General Staff Officer , Grade 2 ( GSO2 ) on the staff of Eastern Command , in the eastern counties of Britain . He was officially promoted to the full rank of Major in 1927 , and from 1927 to 1930 he was the Military Assistant to Chief of the Imperial General Staff . He was " double jumped " to the rank of full Colonel in 1930 and served from 1933 to 1936 as General Staff Officer Grade 1 ( GSO1 ) in the Directorate of Military Operations in the War Office . In 1936 he served in the British forces in the British Mandate of Palestine . From 1936 to 1938 he was the GSO1 ( i . e . Chief of Staff ) in the 1st Infantry Division ( United Kingdom ) . He was promoted to Major General and appointed General Officer Commanding Western Independent District , in India . World War II . In 1940 , after the outbreak of the Second World War , he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff , GHQ India . The following year he was promoted Lieutenant General and appointed Chief of the General Staff in India . Burma Army . In 1942 , he was appointed General Officer Commanding Burma Command , which was facing imminent invasion by Japanese troops . Burma Army was subordinated to the American - British - Dutch - Australian Command , of which Wavell was Commander in Chief . Hutton initially ordered his subordinates to fight as close to the borders as possible . Some of them thought that he was doing so on Wavell ' s orders , but Hutton actually wished to gain time for reinforcements to arrive . This resulted in the defeat of the ill - equipped and badly - trained Burmese and Indian formations which tried to fight close to the frontier . Hutton now considered that Rangoon , the capital , could not be defended . He attempted to divert reinforcements to ports further north . Wavell considered this to be defeatism , and stormed at Hutton in front of witnesses at a meeting on 28 February . He did not argue back , feeling that a dignified silence was the best rebuke . Hutton had already been superseded by General Harold Alexander as GOC of Burma Army , and appointed Alexander ' s Chief of Staff , an embarrassing appointment he held until Burma Army was disbanded later in the year . During the crisis in Burma in 1942 , it was felt by some senior officers ( such as General Sir Alan Hartley , the acting Commander in Chief in India ) , that Hutton made a good chief of staff but was not fitted for command in the field . In this respect , it was unfortunate that Hutton had held command of no major formation before being promoted to command an army . Hutton subsequently served until 1944 as Secretary of the War Resources and Reconstruction Committees of Council , India . In 1944 , he retired from the Army , although he retained the honorary post of Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery until 1952 . Later career . He held a variety of Civil Posts after his retirement : from 1944 to 1946 , he was Officiating Secretary , Viceroy ' s Executive Council in India ; from 1947 to 1949 , he was a Regional Officer for the Ministry of Health ; from 1949 to 1953 , as General Manager of the Anglo - American Council on Productivity ; from 1953 to 1957 as Director of the British Productivity Council , and from 1957 to 1964 as Chairman of Organisation and Methods Training Council .