A promoter and pioneer of the British energy industry, Hinton was one of Britain’s most influential scientists from the 1940s to the 1980s. After studying physics at Cambridge, Hinton worked for the chemical company Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). After the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed to the ministry responsible for the procurement of war equipment.
From 1942 he was general manager of the Filling Factories, which produced the entire range of munitions for the British Army. He retired from this position a year after the end of the war and served as Minister of the Ministry of Procurement between 1946 and 1954. At the end of his ministerial term, he moved to the British Atomic Energy Authority, where he had already served since 1946. He was one of the key pioneers who drove the construction of the UK’s first nuclear power station used for commercial electricity generation at Calder Hall.