Allen Hutt

Hutt came from a family of printers, while his mother Marion was a headmistress. He attended Kilburn Grammar School and then Downing College, Cambridge, graduating with a first-class honours degree in history in 1923.{{cite news |title=President |work=Willesden & Brent Chronicle |date=28 April 1967}}

As a young man Hutt became a convinced communist and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.{{cite web |last1=Bragg |first1=Melvyn |author-link=Melvyn Bragg|title=Miners in the Depression: Coal and Dole |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/voices2/voices_reading_coal.shtml |publisher=BBC |access-date=27 August 2021}} After beginning a career as a writer and journalist, he became an expert on newspaper production, frequently advising newspapers on their design.{{cite web |last1=Avis |first1=Peter |title=Stanley Harrison |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/feb/12/guardianobituaries.obituaries |website=The Guardian |date=12 February 2001 |access-date=27 August 2021}} His clients included The Guardian and Reynold's News.{{cite web |title=Guardian Design Timeline |url=https://www.theguardian.com/gnm-archive/2005/aug/19/1 |website=The Guardian |date=16 November 2017 |access-date=27 August 2021}}{{cite journal|last1=Hutt|first1=Allen|title=Times Roman: a re-assessment|journal=Journal of Typographic Research|date=1970|volume=4|issue=3|url=http://visiblelanguagejournal.com/issue/15|access-date=5 March 2017|archive-date=5 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305192327/http://visiblelanguagejournal.com/issue/15|url-status=dead}} He was also newspaper consultant to the typesetting machine company Monotype. He wrote many reviews and books, including The Post-war History Of The British Working Class (1937){{cite book |last1=Hutt |first1=Allen |title=The Post-war History Of The British Working Class |date=1937 |publisher=Victor Gollancz |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.1251 |access-date=2 September 2021}} and [https://archive.org/details/britishtradeunionismhutt British Trade Unionism] (1941).{{cite book |title=British Trade Unionism: An Outline History |date=1942 |publisher=Lawrence & Wishart |location=London |edition=2 |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.236585 |access-date=2 September 2021}}

Hutt was active in the National Union of Journalists for many years. He was longtime editor of the union's journal, The Journalist, and was the union's president in the year 1967.

His book Newspaper Design (1960, revised 1967){{cite book|last1=Hutt|first1=Allen|title=Newspaper Design|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=1960}} was very successful. Conservative journalist Arthur Christiansen, whose work was praised in the text, described it as "a prodigious service to journalism" and "destined to be a standard work for years".{{cite news |title=Hutt's Book-by Christiansen |work=Daily Worker |date=7 December 1960}} After his death an updated edition was written by Bob James.{{cite book |last1=Hutt |first1=Allen |last2=James |first2=Bob |title=Newspaper design today: a manual for professionals |date=1989 |location=London |isbn=9780853315339 |edition=First |url=https://archive.org/details/newspaperdesignt0000hutt_e5r2 |access-date=27 August 2021}}

At the time of Hutt's retirement in 1966 he was chief sub-editor of the Daily Worker,{{cite news |title=Mr. Allen Hutt Retires |work=The Times |date=20 April 1966}} but he continued working as a freelance consultant.{{cite news |title=Hutt Leaves 'Worker' |work=The Guardian |date=18 April 1966}} He was named a Royal Designer for Industry in 1970.{{cite news |author1=Morning Star Reporter |title=Allen Hutt joins Royal Designers |work=Morning Star |date=1970}}

Hutt's son Sam Hutt (born 1940) is a gynaecologist, but is better known as a country and western singer-songwriter and television presenter under the stage name Hank Wangford.{{cite web |last1=Stevenson |first1=Graham |author1-link=Graham Stevenson (trade union leader) |title=Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies: Hutt Alan |url=https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2008/09/19/alan-hutt/ |publisher=Graham Stevenson |access-date=27 August 2021}}{{cite web |title=Biography: Hank Wangford & the Lost Cowboys |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/hank-wangford-the-lost-cowboys-mn0000640839 |website=AllMusic |access-date=3 September 2021}}

Allen Hutt later married Avis Hutt (née Askey, formerly Clarke), a nurse and health visitor who was the widow of communist surgeon Ruscoe Clarke.{{cite web |title=Avis Hutt: nurse and peace campaigner |url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/avis-hutt-nurse-and-peace-campaigner-rwb622v7xr0 |website=The Times |date=10 February 2010 |access-date=27 August 2021}}{{cite journal |last1=Cadd |first1=Frances |title=Avis Hutt: Nursing London's East End through the 1930s |journal=The UKAHN Bulletin |date=2020 |volume=8 |issue=1 |url=https://bulletin.ukahn.org/avis-hutt-nursing-londons-east-end-through-the-1930s/ |access-date=27 August 2021}}{{cite web |last1=Stevenson |first1=Graham |author1-link=Graham Stevenson (trade union leader) |title=Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies: Clarke Ruscoe |url=https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2008/09/19/dr-ruscoe-clarke/ |publisher=Graham Stevenson |access-date=27 August 2021}}{{cite web |last1=Stevenson |first1=Graham |author1-link=Graham Stevenson (trade union leader) |title=Encyclopedia of Communist Biographies: Hutt Avis |url=https://grahamstevenson.me.uk/2009/02/19/avis-hutt/ |publisher=Graham Stevenson |access-date=27 August 2021}}

Collections of Hutt's personal papers are held by Cambridge University Library, Miyazaki University and the People's History Museum.{{cite web |title=Papers of Allen Hutt |url=https://arcspace-pub.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/9073 |publisher=Cambridge University Library |access-date=27 August 2021}} As a communist activist, the Metropolitan Police held a file of cuttings on Hutt's work, which has been released under Freedom of Information legislation.{{cite web |title=Freedom of Information Request |url=https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/metropolitan-police/disclosure_2018/august_2018/counter-terrorism-command---mepo-3850---george-allen-alias-george-allen-hutt-elizabeth-avia-hutt-and-mepo-3894---reginald-francis-orlando-bridgeman |publisher=Metropolitan Police |access-date=3 September 2021}}

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• [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Hutt%2C+Allen%2C+1901-%22 Books digitised by the Internet Archive]

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Category:1901 births

Category:1973 deaths

Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members

Category:Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge

Category:British typographers and type designers

Category:Royal Designers for Industry

Category:Presidents of the National Union of Journalists