Remembered today - Walter Sutherland

[Derek Robertson]

On the 4th October, 1918, while his battalion was being relieved from front line duty near Hulloch in France, Sec.Lt. Walter Sutherland of the 8th Bn. Seaforth Highlanders was killed by a stray shell. It was his twenty-eighth birthday.

Walter was capped 13 times for Scotland at rugby union prior to the war.

The news of Walter’s death stunned his home town of Hawick. There had been many, many tragedies through the four long years of war, but no one death affected the lives of so many of its townsfolk. Tributes came from all over the country. His former headmaster spoke for many when he wrote in a letter to Sutherland’s parents:

‘It is hard to realise that one who so recently had walked the streets of the old Border town, who was held in such affection by its youth, whose bright smile and cheery nature were like rays of sunshine, had gone and would never again adorn its peaceful life. The memory of such a life, with so many just claims to remembrance, will always stand out as a permanent inspiration and a bright example to all who may follow the Rugby game’.

The true measure of Wattle Suddie’s greatness is that he is still revered in modern day rugby circles. This is doubly remarkable because he flourished in an age full of characters and personalities. Perhaps the most moving tribute to Sutherland was also the most direct:

‘He was made of the stamp of which heroes are made’.

Second Lieutenant Walter R.Sutherland, ‘Wattie Suddie’, was buried in Houchin British Military Cemetery near Bethune in France.