Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Second World War O.B.E. group of six awarded to Squadron Leader The Rev. L. A. Sutherland, Auxiliary Air Force, a very popular Chaplain to No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron - he made a point of journeying south to Tangmere to visit his pilots at the height of the Battle of Britain, where he ‘was an inspiration to all with whom he came in contact’

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Military) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge; British War Medal 1914-20 (Rev. L. A. Sutherland); 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals; Air Efficiency Award, G.VI.R. (Sqn. Ldr. L. A. Sutherland, A.A.F.), together with his R.A.F. Chaplain’s cap badge, mounted court-style as worn, generally good very fine or better (7) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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O.B.E. London Gazette 1 January 1945. The original recommendation states:

‘In 1931, The Rev. Sutherland was appointed chaplain to the newly formed No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron. He held that appointment continuously until 1940 when, on 602 being posted South, he remained as Chaplain at the Royal Air Force Station, Drem. During the Battle of Britain, he visited his old squadron at Tangmere and was an inspiration to all with whom he came in contact in that critical time. His sterling qualities, joviality and practical Christianity have made him invaluable. He has taken a wide interest in all the activities of the Station, had visited the Royal Air Force sick in numerous hospitals and has contributed largely to the morale and fighting spirit of those with whom he came in contact. The very heavy strain which he has imposed upon himself in discharging his duties of Chaplain so conscientiously have told upon his health and have compelled his retirement from the Royal Air Force.’

Lewis Albert Sutherland was born in the Free Parish Manse, Rothesay in September 1889, the son of a clergyman - through his mother, he was a direct descendant of William, the brother of John Knox, the reformer. Completing his education at the University of St. Andrews, he was ordained at Bishopsbriggs Springfield Church in September 1915 and worked for the Y.M.C.A. during the Great War, travelling out to France in May 1917 - his MIC entry confirms his entitlement to a single British War Medal 1914-20.

Post-war, he held appointments as a Minister at Motherwell, Inverness and Paisley, and it was while employed at the latter place in 1931 that he was commissioned as a Chaplain in the Auxiliary Air Force, when he was appointed to No. 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron. He quickly became a popular figure on the Squadron’s establishment, where he was known to one and all as the “Bish”, and was celebrated for his wonderful sense of humour and bag-pipe playing skills. Often the target of some light-hearted leg-pulling by the young pilots, he carried his burden well - such as the occasion they took him to a club, where, to his surprise, he discovered the “Dance of the Seven Veils” in progress. Mobilised with the Squadron in August 1939, he was quickly called upon to carry out front line duties, for that October one of 602’s pilots shared in the first enemy aircraft brought down on British soil - Sutherland conducted the funeral for one of the enemy aircrew and visited others in hospital - ‘a characteristic and humanitarian gesture’.

He was also asked to bless a pair of newly delivered Spitfires, but as Squadron Leader (later Air Vice-Marshal) A.V.R. Johnstone later recalled, ‘I don’t think he was too happy about the idea ... He showed no surprise at all when both planes were lost the next day, both thankfully without pilot loss, and both due to inexplicable loss of control. We all wondered at just what he had said in his prayer!’ But the “Bish” drew the line on being asked to arrive at another event - on the end of a parachute playing his bag-pipes.

When 602 went South in July 1940, Sutherland remained as Chaplain at R.A.F. Drem, but as stated in the recommendation for his O.B.E., he made a point of visiting his old friends at Tangmere during the Battle of Britain, ‘where he was an inspiration to all with whom he came into contact in that critical time’. Just before the unit departed, he was asked to deliver one of his popular after-dinner speeches, in which, with typical humour, he referred to the occasion he was approached by a pilot asking after a certain married lady: “Archibald,” he replied, “the less you have to do with other mens’ wives, the better for you my lad!”

Invalided out of the Auxiliary Air Force in the rank of Squadron Leader in 1944, the much respected Sutherland was appointed O.B.E. in the following year and died in July 1954, while serving as the Minister of Holy Rude Church, Stirling.