Born at Mere, Wiltshire on 20 September 1867 the seventh child and third son of John Farley Rutter, solicitor, and Hannah Player Tanner his wife, Hubert Rutter was educated at Sidcot Quaker School, his family being members of the Society of Friends, and at Weston-super-Mare, before entering the London Hospital, where he served as house physician and house surgeon after taking the Conjoint diplomas in 1891. He graduated through the University of Durham in 1892, and was clinical assistant at the Royal Eye Hospital. His younger brother F B Rutter (1869-1932) was also a Fellow and practised for many years at Mere. At the suggestion of Sir Frederick Treves he joined Wilfred Grenfell's medical mission to deep-sea fishermen off the Newfoundland and Labrador coasts. He settled in practice at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1900. During the war of 1914-18 he served with the Friends' Ambulance Unit, and was created MBE for his services in 1918. He was appointed whole-time regional medical officer for the North-Eastern division under the newly formed Ministry of Health in 1920, and was transferred to Birmingham in 1925. He retired from the civil service at the age limit in 1932, and went back into general practice in Birmingham. In the second world war he rejoined the Friends Ambulance Unit, though over 70. Afterwards he settled for a time at Liverpool and then went back to Birmingham. He served on the Insurance Acts committee of the British Medical Association, and was active in the Adult School movement and in the Society of Friends. He believed that physical health was dependent to a great extent on social and spiritual well-being. Energetic, alert, and enthusiastic, he attended postgraduate refresher courses at the London Hospital till 1952 when he was 84. He married in 1904 Ethel Annie Bendall, who survived him with a daughter and two sons: Dr Ll C Rutter of Wolverhampton and Dr F J Rutter FRCS Ed, who was an ophthalmologist at Exeter. He died at 54 Middle Park Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham on 16 June 1953 aged 85.