Cirrus@Austlit

Born in the mining town of Seaham Harbour, Northumberland, McCutcheon was orphaned at the age of fourteen. He migrated to Australia in 1912, and served in the Keith and Tintinara area as a minister in the Methodist Church.

In 1914 he enlisted in the AIF and served as a stretcher-bearer in the 4th Field Ambulance in France and Gallipoli. Returning to Australia in 1919 he was sent to Berri, where returned soldiers were developing the land through irrigation. This led to his book Missioning the Murray: A Graphic Story of the Soldier Settlements.

Over the next years his ministry took him to Glanville, Cowell, Magill and Broken Hill. In early 1935 he went to Port Adelaide where he worked until his death twenty years later, and was Superintendent of UnitingCare Wesley Port Adelaide and a Naval Chaplain attached to HMAS Torrens.

McCutcheon was well-known as a radio speaker, having a weekly session on Radio 5DN, and he edited a column in the News, 'Pew and Pulpit', in the 1950s.