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TELEPHONE: 01381 621404 E-mail: [email protected] __________________________________________________________________________ _______________ FREE CHURCH MANSE STATION ROAD FORTROSE IV10 8SY November 2015 Dear Friends, On Saturday 26 th of September, Dr Nick Lindsay, Chairman of the Clyne Heritage Society (Brora), phoned to ask me about a relative of mine, John Matheson Sutherland, who had died in the Battle of Loos on 27 th September 1915. (The Society—in light of the centenary commemorations of the Battle of Loos—was posting information on its Facebook pages about people from the parish who had lost their lives in this particular battle.) John was born in Scouriemore on 12 th May 1878, in the home of his maternal grandparents, and was the eldest child of seven born to Alexander Sutherland (Brora) and Elizabeth Matheson. Alexander and Elizabeth married in Glasgow in 1877, but (as was often the case) Elizabeth went home to Scourimore to have her first child nine months later. Last year, in memory of John, we purchased a ceramic poppy from the Blood Swept Lands installation at the Tower of London. Obviously I do not remember John but I do remember his two surviving sisters, Dolina and Isabella, who stayed, in what is now our family home, at Gladstone Cottage, Brora (as the young family had moved there in 1887, the home of John’s paternal grandfather who was also Alexander Sutherland). In fact I use Isabella’s Bible on some public occasions, such as Miss Catherine Sinclair’s funeral service last June (Catherine had requested the use of the AV). ‘Dolly’ is only a vague memory to me (she died in 1959) but ‘Bel’, who was eight years younger, I can easily recall: a beautiful elegant lady. Sadly others in the family had died of Diphtheria within a few days of one another in the spring of 1885. John had enlisted with the Scots Guards and at the age of 21 set sail to South Africa to take part in the Boar War in October 1899. He saw action at Driefontein (March 1900), Johannesburg (May 1900), Diamond Hill (June 1900) and Belfast (August 1900). After a period of civilian life John, no doubt feeling the need, re-enlisted for the Great War. Sadly and tragically John was the 10 th man, within a space of seven months in 1915, to lose his life out of the parish of Clyne (population at the time: 1,700). A further 51 servicemen and women of the same parish would lose their lives in the remaining years of WWI. John’s body was never found. John’s medals are on display in the Strathnaver Museum and his name is inscribed on Stone 9a of the Memorial at Loos, which commemorates 20,615 Allied men who fell in the area and who have no known grave. We, of course, grieve all loss of life both then and throughout the world’s history of war and tragedy. In terms of WWI there was an even greater death toll after the guns fell silent, in the great flu pandemic of 1918-1921. We might well
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TELEPHONE: 01381 621404 E-mail: [email protected]_________________________________________________________________________________________
FREE CHURCH MANSESTATION ROAD
FORTROSEIV10 8SY
November 2015
Dear Friends,
On Saturday 26th of September, Dr Nick Lindsay, Chairman of the Clyne Heritage Society (Brora), phoned to ask me about a relative of mine, John Matheson Sutherland, who had died in the Battle of Loos on 27 th September 1915. (The Society—in light of the centenary commemorations of the Battle of Loos—was posting information on its Facebook pages about people from the parish who had lost their lives in this particular battle.) John was born in Scouriemore on 12th May 1878, in the home of his maternal grandparents, and was the eldest child of seven born to Alexander Sutherland (Brora) and Elizabeth Matheson. Alexander and Elizabeth married in Glasgow in 1877, but (as was often the case) Elizabeth went home to Scourimore to have her first child nine months later. Last year, in memory of John, we purchased a ceramic poppy from the Blood Swept Lands installation at the Tower of London. Obviously I do not remember John but I do remember his two surviving sisters, Dolina and Isabella, who stayed, in what is now our family home, at Gladstone Cottage, Brora (as the young family had moved there in 1887, the home of John’s paternal grandfather who was also Alexander Sutherland). In fact I use Isabella’s Bible on some public occasions, such as Miss Catherine Sinclair’s funeral service last June (Catherine had requested the use of the AV). ‘Dolly’ is only a vague memory to me (she died in 1959) but ‘Bel’, who was eight years younger, I can easily recall: a beautiful elegant lady. Sadly others in the family had died of Diphtheria within a few days of one another in the spring of 1885. John had enlisted with the Scots Guards and at the age of 21 set sail to South Africa to take part in the Boar War in October 1899. He saw action at Driefontein (March 1900), Johannesburg (May 1900), Diamond Hill (June 1900) and Belfast (August 1900). After a period of civilian life John, no doubt feeling the need, re-enlisted for the Great War. Sadly and tragically John was the 10th man, within a space of seven months in 1915, to lose his life out of the parish of Clyne (population at the time: 1,700). A further 51 servicemen and women of the same parish would lose their lives in the remaining years of WWI.
John’s body was never found. John’s medals are on display in the Strathnaver Museum and his name is inscribed on Stone 9a of the Memorial at Loos, which commemorates 20,615 Allied men who fell in the area and who have no known grave. We, of course, grieve all loss of life both then and throughout the world’s history of war and tragedy. In terms of WWI there was an even greater death toll after the guns fell silent, in the great flu pandemic of 1918-1921. We might well ask, in the light of disease, death and man’s inhumanity to man, if there is hope of a world free from such agony and anguish, sorrow and sadness. The Bible alone has the answer as to how we can have ‘peace in our time’ but, not least, perfect peace in Paradise throughout eternity. Faith in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, gives ‘the peace that passes all understanding’ even in the midst of a lack of outward peace. Faith in Jesus Christ brings peace between man and man as well as man and God. Faith in Jesus Christ brings us into God’s redemptive plan for a fallen world:
‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will
wipe every tear from their eyes.There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”’
Revelation 21: 1-4.Trust yourselves, therefore, to Him who said: ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’
Yours sincerely,
Sandy Sutherland (Rev).
