Alec Sutherland

Alec Sutherland
Birth name	Alexander Ross Sutherland
Born	(1922-08-19)19 August 1922 Inverness
Died	16 April 2014(2014-04-16) (aged 91)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army Royal Air Force
Years of service	1941–1946
Rank	Flight Sergeant
Unit	Bomber Command
Awards	Bomber Command Clasp

Alexander Ross Sutherland MBE (19 August 1922 – 16 April 2014) was a Scottish RAF aviator who served with No. 5 Group RAF, Bomber Command during the Second World War.

Sutherland was educated at the newly opened Inverness Technical High School. He joined the Inverness Library Service in 1936 and formed the 161 (1st Highland) Squadron in 1941. After World War II ended he returned to Inverness and was involved in swimming as a competitor and coach, and mountaineering for the rest of the life. He was awarded the MBE in 2009.

Early life

Eric Sutherland was born in Inverness, Scotland on August 19, 1922. He was the first son for William and Jessie Sutherland. He had a brother Billy and a sister, Nancy. He attended Merkinch Primary School in his youth.

Military service

Sutherland aspired to be a pilot, but his night vision was impaired due to snow blindness. Notwithstanding, as a teenager he helped to found an Air Training Corps squadron, enlisted in the RAF, and trained on Gypsy Moth biplanes. He received training as a fighter pilot then joined Bomber Command. He became a bombardier/radio operator on the heavy bomber Lancasters in Bomber Command. During his service, he flew ten missions over Germany with No 5 Group – motto: “Undaunted”. – whose missions on the heavy bombers over enemy territory helped in Britain's victory in the World War II. " He flew in Vickers Wellingtons with 14 Operational Training Unit (OTU) before moving on to Avro Lancaster heavy bombers with 26 OTU."

In 1940 he became a member of the Air Defence Cadet Corps, which drilled with broomsticks and "initially met in a barn." This presaged the Air Training Corps, 161 (1st Highland) Squadron which Sutherland helped to create. He was the squadron's first senior Non-commissioned officer, "a cadet flight sergeant, as the corps was now being trained by RAF instructors, using airframes, engines and an entire Hawker Audax trainer bi-plane" which the squadron had rebuilt. The squadron also completed flying hours at RAF Longman and RAF Dalcross airfields, where they flew Airspeed Oxfords, de Havilland Gypsy Moths, Dragon Rapide biplanes, and Boulton Paul Defiants. In October, 1941, he enlisted with the RAF in Edinburgh and mustered at London's Lord's Cricket Ground. Selected for aircrew training, he went to No 17 Initial Training Wing at Scarborough and thence to No 1 Radio School. In November, 1943, he qualified as a wireless operator This led to furhter training in Canada under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan scheme at the RAF Air Navigation School in Port Albert, Ontario. He then flew as a wireless operator in Avro Ansons with Coastal Command based in Northern Ireland at RAF Nutts Corner.

While recognizing the bombing was brutal and relentless as the war in Europe came to a close, he said it “necessary”.

In May, 1945, after VE Day, he swam in London for the RAF at a celebratory Aquacade. As assignment to the Far East war was pending, he was given tropical vaccinations and aircraft were repainted. In August, 1945, those plans were interrupted when the Japanese Empire surrendered following dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

His service continued through 1946, doing RAF Flight trainings and delivery of surplus bombers to scrapyards.

He received the 1st Class Good Conduct Badge.

Civilian life

Leaving the military, he became an assistant librarian in Inverness. As a teenager, Sutherland was a founding member of the LMS (London, Midland and Scottish Railway) Swimming Club. In 1937, the club was set up contemporaneous with the opening of the town's new baths. He swam in a children's ballooon race, the pool's first competitive event. He coached a swimming team and took up competitive water polo. He taught thousands of children to swim. He coached hundreds of competitors and continued to take part in competitions himself into his late 80s.

His enthusiasm for hillwalking, blossomed into mountaineering. He drove a motorcycle from Inverness to Chamonix and climbed Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain, fulfilling a vow he made when he flew over it. He survived an avalanche in the Cairngorms, and retrieved from a crevasse his lost ice axe – he said was of “sentimental value”, and was used in the ascent of Mont Blanc.

Over the years, Sutherland became a maven of the Cuillins, Cairngorms, and the Glen Affric's hills. In 1950, he helped establish the Inverness Mountaineering Club. His "custodianship of the remote Shenavall Bothy – at the foot of An Teallachin the west Highlands, which he described as “the most beautiful house in Britain” – was a source of pride for him.

In 1975, following local government reorganisation, he moved from the library to work for Inverness District housing department. He was honoured with the Inverness Sports Personality (senior) award for services to swimming. His volunteer work was honored in 1996 with a "Help the Aged" award.

In 2002 he ran with the Commonwealth Games baton, even though he was in his eighth decade. In 2007, he won "two gold medals at Masters swimming in Manchester, was selected as a local hero to take part in the traditional Riding of the Scottish Parliament procession, was awarded BBC Scotland’s "Sports Personality of the Year Unsung Hero award" and had an executive room at Inverness Leisure named after him." This was followed by a life membership of Scottish Swimming in 2008 and an MBE in 2009."

He was known for his continued teaching to school children about the losses of the RAF — to perpetuate their memory — during which he would display his personal memorabilia and archive, including his Flight suit and "a tattered swastika flag given to him by a former prisoner of war whom he had escorted home on a flight."

Because of the loss of civilian lives in the Bombing of Dresden in February, 1945, the British Government chose not to strike campaign medals for Bomber Command. In 1984 the widow of Air Marshall Arthur (Bomber) Harris led the effort to strike a belated commemorative medal to recognise the World War II role of members of Bomber Command. Sutherland lived long enough to receive the award, seventy years after he earned it. In 2012, he was invited to the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial by the Queen in London. He placed a message within the memorial to fallen comrades. He also was a recipient of the Bomber Command clasp.

Legacy

On April 16, 2014, Sutherland died aged 91 following a period of illness. A funeral for him was held was at the Huntly Street Methodist Church. Air Cadets of the Inverness 161 Squadron in Inverness acted as an honour guard.

In 1952 Sutherland married his wife Rhoda. They met at a dance in 1951, and had two sons. They also ran a bed and breakfast. He was survived by his wife, sons Graham and Lawrence, and his sister Nancy.

See also

• List of RAF Regiment units
• RAF Bomber Command
• RAF Bomber Command aircrew of World War II

Further reading

• Moyes, Philip J. R. (1976) [1964]. Bomber Squadrons of the RAF and Their Aircraft (2nd ed.). London: Macdonald and Jane's. ISBN 978-0-354-01027-6. Search this book on
• Otter, Patrick (1996). Lincolnshire Airfields in the Second World War. Newbury: Hushion House, Countryside Books. ISBN 978-1-85306-424-1. Search this book on
• Pine, L.G. (1983). A Dictionary of Mottoes (1st ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 978-0-7100-9339-4. Search this book on
• Ward, Chris (2007). 5 Group Bomber Command: An Operational Record. London: Pen & Sword Aviation. ISBN 978-1-84415-579-8. Search this book on

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