Thomas Sutherland (British Army officer)

Last updated

Thomas Douglas Sutherland
Born1892
Stronsay, Orkney Islands, Scotland
DiedUnknown
AllegianceFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Service/branch Flag of the British Army.svg British Army
Rank Lieutenant-Colonel
Unit Lincolnshire Regiment
Seaforth Highlanders
Battles/wars First World War
Second World War
Awards Distinguished Service Order and Bar, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, Military Cross, Mentioned in Dispatches

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Douglas Sutherland DSO* OBE MC (1892 - 1946) was a British Army officer of the First and Second world wars.

Having been brought up in Orkney, Sutherland emigrated to Ceylon as a young man, where he enlisted in the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps. On 25 November 1915 he was granted a commission and became a second lieutenant in the newly formed 6th (Service) Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. [1] [2] He first saw action with his unit in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. He received the Military Cross during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 for successfully retrieving the body of his commanding officer from no man's land and assuming command of his company. [3] Sutherland was wounded during the Battle of Messines on 7 June 1917, but by August was in command of 'B' Company of his battalion. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his action on 22 August 1917 in the Battle of Passchendaele, successfully rallying a beleaguered company of men and effectively securing a position he had just taken. [4] He was awarded a Bar to his DSO for gallantry and leadership during fighting on the Grand Honnelle River on 6 and 7 November 1918. [5] [6] Sutherland ended the war with the rank of major, having been mentioned in dispatches several times.

All four of his brothers also served in World War I. Two of his brothers, Anderson and Goodwin, died in the war.

After the First World War, he emigrated to Canada. Between the wars he married and lived in Sechelt, British Columbia, where he worked as a police officer in the British Columbia Provincial Police. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Sutherland was commissioned into the Seaforth Highlanders on 28 January 1940. [7] He served with the regiment in the Battle of France and was evacuated from Dunkirk. After Dunkirk, he was posted to Ethiopia and Eritrea to serve in the Military Police. Sutherland was invested as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 18 February 1943. [8] On 16 June 1945 he resigned his commission due to disability and was granted the rank of honorary lieutenant-colonel. [9] He died in Vancouver, British Columbia on 6 July 1946, age 54, and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.

Related Research Articles

General Sir Alexander Frank Philip Christison, 4th Baronet, was a British Army officer who served with distinction during the world wars. After service as a junior officer on the Western Front in the First World War, he later distinguished himself during the Second World War, where he commanded XV Indian Corps, part of Sir William Slim's Fourteenth Army, during the Burma campaign. He then went on to have a successful postwar career, and lived to the age of 100.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Pugh Evans</span> Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Brigadier Lewis Pugh Evans, was a British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dudley Graham Johnson</span> Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Major-General Dudley Graham Johnson, was a British Army officer and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Lieutenant General Noel Mackintosh Stuart Irwin & Two Bars, MC was a senior British Army officer, who played a prominent role in the British Army after the Dunkirk evacuation, and in the Burma campaign during the Second World War. He was also instrumental in some reforms to the training and equipment of British soldiers after the defeat in France in 1940, intended to meet the demands of modern warfare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Lincolnshire Regiment</span> Military unit

The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regiments and named the 10th Regiment of Foot. After the Childers Reforms of 1881, it became the Lincolnshire Regiment after the county where it had been recruiting since 1781.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Miles</span> British Army general (1891–1977)

Major-General Eric Grant Miles CB DSO MC was a senior British Army officer who saw active service during both World War I and World War II, where he commanded the 126th Infantry Brigade in the Battle of France and the 56th (London) Infantry Division in the final stages of the campaign in Tunisia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Holmes (British Army officer)</span> British Army general (1892–1969)

Lieutenant-General Sir William George Holmes was a senior British Army officer who fought with distinction in the First World War. He later served in the Second World War, where he commanded the 42nd Infantry Division during the Battle of France in May/June 1940.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Loyd</span> British Army general (1891–1973)

General Sir Henry Charles Loyd,, nicknamed "Budget Loyd", was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the world wars, most notably during the Second World War as General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 2nd Infantry Division during the Battle of France in May 1940.

Lieutenant General Sir Henry Beresford Dennitts Willcox KCIE CB DSO MC was a British Army officer who served during World War I and World War II.

General Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, was a British Army officer and later Governor of Malta.

Major-General Cyril Ernest Napier Lomax, was an officer in the British Army during the First World War and Second World War. During the latter he commanded the 16th Infantry Brigade in North Africa and the Middle East, and later commanded the 26th Indian Infantry Division in the Burma Campaign, gaining the approval of Field Marshal Sir William Slim.

Colonel Francis Cecil Leonard "Bill" Bell, DSO, MC, TD, was a British Army officer who was decorated for his service during the Second World War. He later served as chief legal adviser to Lloyds Bank and as chairman of the European Legal Committee of the British Bankers' Association.

Brigadier-General Frederick Gordon Spring, was a senior British Army officer.

Brigadier-General Sir George Henry Gater was a senior British Army officer and civil servant.

Colonel Henry Huntly Leith Malcolm was a Scottish officer in the British Army during the Anglo-Egyptian War and World War I.

Robert Sinclair Knox, was an officer in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in the First World War. He was one of seven British officers to be awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) four times during the conflict.

Major-General Thomas Needham Furnival Wilson CB DSO MC was a British Army officer who saw service in both the First and the Second World Wars.

Brigadier Leonard Cuthbert Lucas, was an Australian architect, public servant and Army officer. During the First World War, he served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. During the Second World War, he served with the 6th Division in Libya, Greece and Ceylon, and was Deputy Engineer-in-Chief at Advanced Land Headquarters, South West Pacific Area. After the war, he was in charge of the construction effort supporting the Operation Totem British nuclear weapons tests in Australia in 1953.

Major General William Robb was a senior British Army officer, who served in both World War I and World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">R. E. Power</span>

Lieutenant-Colonel Rowland Edward Power was in Command of the 1st Battalion of the South Nigeria Regiment between 1905 and 1906, the 2nd Battalion of the Buffs during World War I, the 1st Battalion of the Buffs at the end of World War I, and from 1923 until his retirement in 1927, the 1st Battalion of the Buffs in Gibraltar.

References

  1. ↑ "No. 29380". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 November 1915. p. 11743.
  2. ↑ Colonel F. G. Spring, The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment 1914 - 1919 (Poacher Books, 2009), p.23.
  3. ↑ "No. 13012". The Edinburgh Gazette (Supplement). 16 November 1916. p. 2092.
  4. ↑ "No. 13146". The Edinburgh Gazette (Supplement). 27 September 1917. p. 2049.
  5. ↑ "No. 13428". The Edinburgh Gazette (Supplement). 3 April 1919. p. 1358.
  6. ↑ Colonel F. G. Spring, Appendix II, The History of the 6th (Service) Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment 1914 - 1919 (Poacher Books, 2009), p.95-6.
  7. ↑ "No. 34806". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 March 1940. p. 1369.
  8. ↑ "No. 35908". The London Gazette (Supplement). 18 February 1943. p. 859.
  9. ↑ "No. 37130". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1945. p. 3120.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.