Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Douglas Sutherland (1892 - 1946) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

officer of the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

world wars. Having been brought up in

Orkney Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...

, Sutherland emigrated to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

as a young man, where he enlisted in the

Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps The Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps was a regiment of the Ceylon Defence Force, which existed between 1900 and 1949. It was a volunteer ( reserve) regiment based in Kandy, made up of only Europeans that were tea and rubber planters of the hills of ...

. On 25 November 1915 he was granted a

commission In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

and became a second lieutenant in the newly formed 6th (Service) Battalion of the

Lincolnshire Regiment 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 regim ...

. He first saw action with his unit in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. He received the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level until 1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) Other ranks (UK), other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth of ...

during the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

in 1916 for successfully retrieving the body of his commanding officer from no man's land and assuming command of his company. 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 The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

for his action on 22 August 1917 in the

Battle of Passchendaele The Third Battle of Ypres (; ; ), also known as the Battle of Passchendaele ( ), was a campaign of the First World War, fought by the Allies of World War I, Allies against the German Empire. The battle took place on the Western Front (World Wa ...

, successfully rallying a beleaguered company of men and effectively securing a position he had just taken. 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. Sutherland ended the war with the rank of major, having been

mentioned in dispatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face of t ...

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 Sechelt (, Sechelt language, shíshálh Language: ch'atlich) is a district municipality located on the lower Sunshine Coast (British Columbia), Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. Approximately northwest of Vancouver, it is accessible from ma ...

, British Columbia, where he worked as a

police officer A police officer (also called policeman or policewoman, cop, officer or constable) is a Warrant (law), warranted law employee of a police, police force. In most countries, ''police officer'' is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. ...

in the

British Columbia Provincial Police The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the provincial police service of British Columbia, Canada, between 1858 and 1950. One of the first law enforcement agencies in North America, the British Columbia Provincial Police was formed to ...

. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Sutherland was commissioned into the

Seaforth Highlanders The Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, the Duke of Albany's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, mainly associated with large areas of the northern Highlands of Scotland. The regiment existed from 1881 to 1961, and saw service ...

on 28 January 1940. He served with the regiment in the

Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...

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 The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

on 18 February 1943. On 16 June 1945 he resigned his commission due to disability and was granted the rank of honorary lieutenant-colonel. He died in Vancouver, British Columbia on 6 July 1946, age 54, and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutherland, Thomas 1890s births 1946 deaths Military personnel from Orkney British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Military Cross Royal Lincolnshire Regiment officers Seaforth Highlanders officers