Obituary British Medical Journal April 30, 1960:
Dr. Halliday Sutherland, well known for his work on the control and prevention of tuberculosis and as the author of books which appealed to a wide circle of readers, died after a short illness in the Hospital of St. John and St. Elizabeth, London, on April 19. He was 77 years of age.
Halliday Gibson Sutherland was born at Glasgow on June 24, 1882, the elder son of Dr. J.F. Sutherland, a Deputy Commissioner in Lunacy for Scotland, and received his early education at Glasgow High School and at Merchiston Castle School, Edinburgh, where he won the Walter Scott open essay prize. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating M.B., Ch.B. in 1906, and two years later he proceeded to the M.D., with honours.
Seated (from left to right): Dr John Francis Sutherland, Jane Henrietta Sutherland (nee McKay).
After graduation Sutherland obtained the post of bacteriologist to the Liverpool Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, where he developed his interest in tuberculin. Later he spent some time in Spain, assisting his uncle, who was the doctor in charge of a British medical clinic at Huelva.
On his return to Scotland he took a post as clinical assistant at Craig House, Edinburgh, and then followed appointments at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Edinburgh, and the Westmorland Sanatorium, where he was medical superintendent, until he became medical officer to the St. Marylebone Tuberculosis Dispensary in London in 1911.
His work in London was interrupted by the first world war, in which he served first in the Royal Navy and then in the Royal Air Force. On return to civilian life Sutherland was appointed assistant physician to the Royal Chest Hospital and physician to St. Marylebone Hospital, and then, in 1920, he became Deputy Commissioner of Medical Services (Tuberculosis) for South-Western England and Wales, a position he held until 1925. For the next 15 years he was an assistant medical officer under the London County Council until, in 1941, he was appointed assistant medical officer of health for Coventry. Two years later he moved to Birmingham to become executive medical officer for mass radiography in the city, and be was medical director of the mass radiography centre there from 1948 to 1951, being employed also as a consultant in the National Health Service. He was honorary physician to, and a member of the council of, the Queen Alexandra Sanatorium Fund, and a past-president of the Tuberculosis Society of Great Britain.
Halliday Sutherland was a tenacious fighter for the principles he thought were right, whether medical or political. Many of his views were contentious, but there was no doubt about his sincerity. In 1945 he stood, unsuccessfully, as the Labour candidate for Parliament for the Scottish Universities, and in his address he attacked things done by “monopolists, rings, cartels, and vested interests at the cost of human happiness.”‘
During his professional life he wrote many articles and several books about tuberculosis, including Pulmonary Tuberculosis in General Practice (1916) and Tuberculin Handbook (1936), but his great success as an author began with an autobiography entitled The Arches of the Years. Published in 1932, it ran to 35 English editions and was also translated into eight European languages.
Other books followed quickly: A Time to Keep (1934), Laws of Life (1935), In My Path (1936), Lapland Journey (1938), Hebridean Journey (1939), Southward Journey (1942), Control of Life (1944), Spanish Journey (1948), and Irish Journey (1956). He also wrote the introduction to Religio Medici in the Everyman Series, and edited, in 1943, the 45th edition of his father’s handbook on First Aid to the Injured and Sick.
With his religion, as in other matters. he was not afraid of controversy, and he successfully defended (eventually in the House of Lords) an action for libel brought against him by Dr. Marie Stopes. In 1954 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Isabel the Catholic, and he was presented with the Pope John XXI Medal in 1955. Halliday Sutherland married Miss Muriel Fitzpatrick in 1920 and had five sons (one of whom was killed in the second world war) and one daughter.
Dr. Harley Williams writes: Halliday Gibson Sutherland was described by his great opponent, Dr. Marie Stopes, whom he finally defeated in the House of Lords after a series of libel hearings, as “the most cocksure man in the British Empire.” This jibe did not do full justice to the many resources of wit and courage of a man who packed three careers into his 77 years. He was a pioneer in tuberculosis, a religious controversialist, and a best-selling author.
In his undergraduate days in Edinburgh he had been a pillar of the Liberal faith, and indeed was more temperamentally fitted for law and politics than medicine. After graduating he become Dr. Robert Philip’s favourite pupil, and edited (1911) a book of papers on the newly born tuberculosis movement, written by Philip’s pupils and friends. The book found its way into the hands of the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith. As a consequence, Dr. Philip became Sir Robert, with Sutherland as his Grand Vizier. He was abounding in original ideas. He produced the first health-education cinema film made in this country, and as tuberculosis officer for Marylebone he started the first open air school in the bandstand of Regent’s Park.
After the first world war his friendship with Philip cooled, and about the same time Sutherland joined the Catholic Church. He now emerged in a new role, as a controversialist over artificial contraception, which he opposed on genetic and religious grounds. Those polemics are now past history. but they did have the effect of adding to the English law of libel. In 1933 appeared Sutherland’s best book, The Arches of the Years, the title borrowed from the Catholic poet Francis Thompson. Sutherland had the gift of exhibiting his own adventures and misadventures with engaging modesty, combined with self-assurance. This book was followed by several other volumes of travel biography in the same attractive idiosyncrasy.
Sutherland was a red-haired, blue-eyed, Highland Scot, with an up-tilted nose. He made friends and enemies with equal readiness. Both will remember this entertaining and cantankerous man who opened several new paths and gave to the world the full flavour of his personality.
Obituary of Dr Halliday Sutherland in the British Medical Journal April 30, 1960