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Auction: 19001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 468

Royal Scots Fusiliers

'The 4th and 5th Royal Scots Fusiliers carried Katrah about 4.45 p.m. after a long and arduous fight among the sunken roads and cactus hedges. One incident demands quotation: "Captain H. E. Sutherland 4th Royal Scots Fusiliers, led the fourth company of his battalion in another attempt to outflank the Turks from the south. He was determined to make a proper detour, and led the way a considerable distance ahead of his men. With him were a Lewis gunner with a single drum of ammunition, and a grenadier with only two bombs. Sutherland moved rapidly over the ridge, and struck the end of a trench filled with Turks which marked the end of their support line. The Lewis gunner emptied his only drum into them, the grenadier threw his two bombs, and nine Turkish officers, with sixty-four other ranks, surrendered to these three Fusiliers.'

Such men turn the tide of battle; The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, refers.

An exceptional Great War M.C. and Bar group of five awarded to Captain H. E. G. Sutherland, 1/4th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers

Having seen action in Gallipoli and been mentioned in despatches for the storming of Dueidar Post in Egypt in April 1916 - when he bayoneted one Turk and captured 12 others - he won his first M.C. for holding his ground under intense attack at Outpost Hill in the Second Battle of Gaza

Yet - as quoted above - this gallant Scotsman truly excelled himself by his great daring at the capture of Junction Station at Katrah in the immediate aftermath of the Third Battle of Gaza in November 1917. He was awarded a Bar to his M.C.

Military Cross, G.V.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse privately engraved, 'Captain H. E. G. Sutherland, O.C. 'D' Company, 1/4th Battn. Royal Scots Fusiliers (T.F.), Gaza, 19th April 1917, Katrah 13th November 1917'; 1914-15 Star (2 Lieut. H. E. G. Sutherland, R. Sco. Fus.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Capt. H. E. G. Sutherland); War Medal 1939-45, mounted as worn, generally very fine or better (5)

M.C. London Gazette 16 August 1917:

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When in command of a detachment he held his ground for many hours under intense fire until forced to retire through both his flanks, being attacked. He conducted the retirement with the greatest steadiness, brining back some of his wounded, and afterwards returned and brought in more of them.'

Bar to M.C. London Gazette 24 April 1918:

'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He was ordered at very short notice to carry out a turning movement against the enemy's flank. With the utmost determination he doubled his men to the spot and attacked so fiercely that the enemy was obliged to reinforce that flank. He showed great gallantry and resource.'

Henry Eric Gibb Sutherland was educated at the Edinburgh Institution and Edinburgh University, where he was a student of Arts & Law, 1912-14 and a member of the O.T.C.; he returned to the university after the war.

Enlisting as a private soldier in the 9th Battalion, Royal Scots Fusiliers in August 1914, he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the 1/4th Battalion in the following month. Having then been advanced to Lieutenant, he landed at 'V' Beach, Gallipoli in early June 1915, in which month the Battalion took its first casualties. In July, Sutherland and his comrades were hotly engaged in the Gully ravine sector and, by the middle of the month, had suffered losses of 50 killed, 62 missing and 150 wounded.

The Battalion witnessed further action in the trenches east of Krithia and in the Vineyard sector in August, Private D. R. Lauder winning the V.C. for his gallantry in a bombing party; it was withdrawn from the peninsula in December.

Next deployed in Egypt, Sutherland displayed gallantry of a high order at the storming of Dueidar Post in April 1916, when he bayoneted one Turk and captured 12 others. He was mentioned in despatches.

As recounted above, he next distinguished himself at the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917, when he held his ground for many hours under intense fire at Outpost Hill. He was awarded the M.C.

Following his subsequent gallant deeds at Junction Station, Katrah - remarkable deeds that won him a Bar to his M.C. - he transferred as a Captain to the 1st Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. He remained similarly employed until demobilised in July 1919.


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