It is with great sadness we announce the death of Dr Michael Hutson (ON 1951-1960) in November 2025.

After joining the Prep School in 1951 Michael moved up to the Senior School where he was a pupil in  White’s House.

In 1956 he was awarded a Form Prize and also a City Major Award.

Michael played both rugby and cricket at school. He was vice-captain and secretary for both the First XV rugby team and the First XI cricket team and he was awarded his colours in both. He also received the Jasper Trophy for Batting.

‘The Nottinghamian’ (1960 Summer Term) cricket report says:

“Richardson and Hutson have been astonishingly consistent ………..Hutson is now a very sound player and his innings against the MCC will be remembered for a very long time.”

Michael was in the CCF and was promoted to Corporal in 1958 and Sergeant in 1959.

He also held the role of School Prefect.

Michael stayed on for 3rd Year 6th and gained a place at Downing College, Cambridge.

Below are some photographs of Michael at School.

1959-60 Rugby First XV (Michael - seated, 3rd from left)

1958 Cricket First XI (Michael - standing, second from left)

Prefects 1960 (Michael - standing, 3rd from left)

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Here is an obituary kindly written by Michael's daughter Emma.

Michael died peacefully on 29 November 2025 from Alzheimer’s disease, after a long and distinguished medical career.

Michael was born on 31st March 1942 in Nottingham. He achieved a scholarship to the Nottingham High School for Boys. Here, he discovered a love of sport, playing rugby and cricket to a high standard. These sporting abilities helped him to secure a place studying natural sciences at Downing College, Cambridge University. He furthered his studies in medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, and qualified as a doctor in 1966.

Michael was a keen sportsman. At Cambridge, his cricket reached a high standard when he played for the University team, the Crusaders (Mike Brearly, an ex-captain of the English team, was Cambridge captain at the time) and he was renowned for his leg break googly bowling. He played golf to a handicap of 11 or 12 and he was a fine squash player. He regularly played with Brian Clough, the captain of Nottingham Forest, every Saturday before a match, which Clough acknowledged was his way to let off steam before a game. Over the age of 40, Michael went on to run two marathons, and he was a keen swimmer until his health deteriorated due to Alzheimer’s in his later years.

Michael met Helen Lucas, later his wife, in 1959, whilst still at school. They married in October 1964, whilst Michael was still at St. Thomas’s Hospital, living in Merton Park, Greater London and then returning to Nottinghamshire in 1968 to live in Colston Bassett village. Here, Michael became a GP for the local practice, now known as the Belvoir Health Group.

Michael soon united his sporting passion and interest in musculoskeletal medicine as he was appointed medical officer to Nottingham Forest Football Club (1976-1985) and Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. Not only did he support the Forest team through their glory days under Brian Clough (the team won the national league and the European Cup in 1980), but he also persuaded Brian Clough to pay him a decent salary, which was unheard of for doctors attached to football teams at the time! Taking courage from this experience, he gave up his GP work in 1980 and launched himself as a pioneer in the world of orthopaedic and sports medicine.

Together with a group of contemporaries from the British Association of Manual Medicine, he started to build the principles and practice of sports medicine. Michael established the UK’s first sports injuries clinic, General Hospital, Nottingham (1980-1985) and continued to work in Nottingham and across the UK setting up musculoskeletal clinics. Following a short stint at Harley Street in 1985, he formed the Sports and Fitness Association (SAFA) with contemporaries, Malcolm Reed and John Davis. A pioneering project, it included a multidisciplinary team, with a physiologist, a consultant in occupational medicine and a leading expert in coronary rehabilitation. Sadly, the clinic was ahead of its time and eventually folded.

This prompted Michael to move further into musculoskeletal medicine. He was a teacher and examiner on the diploma of sports medicine course at the Society of Apothecaries London and at the Royal London Hospital, dean of the Institute of Sports Medicine (1988-90) and president of the British Institute of Musculoskeletal Medicine (BIMM) (1992-98). He attempted unsuccessfully to gain recognition for this branch of medicine in the UK, but he worked closely with European colleagues in the Society of Orthopaedic Medicine and became president and later chairman (2004), of the International Medical Federation of Musculoskeletal/Manual Medicine (FIMM), seeking to create high standards of practice in this branch of medicine worldwide. In later years, he brought his skills to the NHS, working as a musculoskeletal physician at the Royal London Hospital and other clinics across the country.

Michael authored and edited several medical textbooks, of which Sport Injuries: Recognition and Management won the prestigious Glaxo prize for medical writing in 1991. He co-edited, with Richard Ellis, the Oxford Textbook of Musculoskeletal Medicine (with a later edition with Adam Ward), which become the core textbook for students of sports medicine.

On 15th April 1989, Michael took his two sons to attend the Forest vs Liverpool FA Cup match at Hillsborough, which turned into a tragedy with 97 fatalities and 766 injuries, later known as The Hillsborough Disaster. His son, Alastair, 18 years old at the time, recalls how Michael was swiftly on the pitch, determined to help wherever he could, and spent the unfolding hours administering resuscitation and attempting to save lives.

Michael was a great adventurer and always believed that the road less travelled was the most interesting, as evidenced in his work but also in his family life. He was a great traveller and loved to go off the beaten track and experience the culture. His daughter, Emma, recalls how on family holidays, they would often find themselves down the back streets, off piste, frequently getting lost and always making friends with the locals. Luckily for Michael, he was able to combine his wanderlust with his work. He travelled Europe and Internationally with the Nottingham Forest team as medical officer, and enjoyed trips to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Russia and America as a member of various international medical groups. He loved to ski in the Alps and the Dolomites, and he walked the Pennine Way with Brian Clough.

Michael had a great interest in the Arts, particularly the Opera, and visited many opera houses whilst on his travels, including the Sydney Opera House and Bayreuth Opera House. He had his own artistic blossoming late in life, starting to paint in his 70s and upon retirement, turning to pens to create intricate plant studies and village scenes. He also took up building dry stone walls, building a series for the grounds of his house in Owthorpe, Nottinghamshire.

He is survived by his wife, Helen, his children, Emma, Alastair and Nicholas and his grandchildren Cameron, Ella, Mackenzie, Beatrice, Stanley and Alfie.