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Halliday Gibson Sutherland was born in Glasgow on 24th June 1882. He was educated at Glasgow High School and Merchiston Castle School.

In 1920 he married Muriel Fitzpatrick. They had six children and lived at 5 Stafford Terrace, Kensington in London.

Sutherland died in the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, St Marylebone, London on 19th April 1960.

Medical Career

Sutherland graduated from Edinburgh University with a MB, Ch B in 1906 and MD with honours in 1908. Following graduation he worked closely with Robert William Philip, described as a "pioneer of modern anti-tuberculosis schemes. In 1911, Sutherland founded a tuberculosis clinic and an open-air school in the bandstand of Regent's Park in London. He also produced a cinema film on tuberculosis, thought to be Britain's first film on health education.

During the first world war, Sutherland served in the Royal Navy (includng service on the Empress of Britain (Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/RMS_Empress_of_Britain_(1906)) and in the Royal Air Force.

After the War:

• Physician to St Marylebone (later St Charles) Hospital, Ladbroke Grove. Assistant physician to the Royal Chest Hospital.
• 1920-25 Deputy Commissioner (Tuberculosis) for the South-West of Britain and joined the medical service of the London County Council.
• 1941 Deputy Medical Officer of Health for Coventry
• 1943-1951 Director of the mass radiography centre in Birmingham

Books

Sutherland wrote a number of books and articles over his career, some of which are listed below. The Arches of the Years published in 1932 was the most successful in commercial terms. It was listed as a top bestseller in the United States for 1933, ran to 35 editions in English and was translated into eight languages.

• Pulmonary Tuberculosis in General Practice (1916)
• Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians
• The Arches of the Years (1932)
• A Time to Keep (1934)
• Laws of Life (1935)
• In My Path (1936)
• Tuberculin Handbook (1936)
• Lapland Journey (1938)
• Hebridean Journey (1939)
• Southward Journey (1942)
• Control of Life (1944)
• Spanish Journey (1948)
• Irish Journey (1956)

Irish Journey included Dr Sutherland's account of his visit to the Magdalene Laundry in Galway in April 1955.

Sutherland v. Stopes

In 19?? Sutherland wrote Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine Against the Neo Malthusians in which he attacked “the essential fallacies of Malthusian teaching”. He wrote that poverty and disease were not caused by over population (as he contended the Malthusians believed), but arose from “under-development” and the “severance of inhabitants from the soil”.

Marie Stopes was mentioned twice in the book.

In the first instance, Sutherland reproduced a letter Stopes had written to the Sussex Daily News and which the paper had published on 17th November 19??. He emphasised a paragraph of her letter which he said was a “malignant attack” on the medical profession. It read:

That there may be medical men who do not approve of birth control is natural when one remembers that a doctor has to make his living, and can do so more easily when women are ailing with incessant pregnancies than when they maintain themselves in good health by only having children when fitted to do so. Opinions of medicals, therefore must be sifted. The best doctors are with us; the self-seeking and the biased may be against us.

In the second instance, under the heading “Specially Hurtful to the Poor” and sub-heading “Exposing the Poor to Experiment”, Sutherland wrote:

In the midst of a London slum a woman, who is a doctor of German philosophy (Munich), has opened a Birth Control Clinic, where working women are instructed in a method of contraception described by Professor McIlroy as ‘The most harmful method of which I have had experience’. When we remember that millions are being spent by the Ministry of Health and by Local Authorities – on pure milk for necessitous expectant and nursing mothers, on Maternity Clinics to guard the health of mothers before and after childbirth, for the provision of skilled midwives, and on Infant Welfare Centres – it is truly amazing that this monstrous campaign of birth control should be tolerated by the Home Secretary. Charles Bradlaugh was condemned to jail for a less serious crime.

Stopes was doubtless incensed by both refererences. In the first instance, given that Sutherland was quoting her published words and expressing an opinion on these, it was hardly actionable. It was in relation to the second instance that Stopes sought legal redress and she commenced proceedings on the grounds of defamation.

Sutherland v Stopes went through the courts. Sutherland won. Stopes appealed and won. Sutherland appealed the House of Lords, at the time the supreme court in Britain who found in his favour on ?? 1922.

In modern times the struggle between Sutherland and Stopes is as a battle between advocates of women's rights and reactionary forces (source Misplaced Pages). This omits the bigger issues in play at the time: the doctrines of Eugenics and Malthusianism.

For instance, Charles Bradlaugh 1877 trial for publishing 'obscene literature' arose when he (with Annie Besant) had republished an American Malthusian tract in Britain to which they had added the subtitle: An Essay on the Population Question. Again, Stopes had been interested in eugenics at least since 1912 when she joined the Eugenics Education Society. She had signed the letter to the Sussex Daily News as "President Society for Constructive and Racial Progress”, the aim of which was "the illumination of sex life as the basis for racial progress". While her work at the Birth Control clinic did concern itself to alleviate and improve women's health for working class people, it was subservient to the eugenic ideals to which she adhered to until her death in 1958.

Sutherlnad would have been familiar with the problems of the poor through his work on tuberlocis generally and his clinic in Regents Park and the open-sir school. Sutherland's book railed against the advocates of Malthusian doctrine. Contraception was a way to achieve both the aims of the eugenicists and Malthusianians.

While it is a cliche, it is also nonetheless true, that all historical figures need to be understood in the context of their times. Sutherland and Stopes are no exception.

Both eugenics and Malthusianism are doctrines that created heated passions and strong reactions between their advocates and detractors. Both doctrines have since been discredited - particularly eugenics following the revelation of its ghastly practical application by the Nazi and other governments. In order to understand what the issues behind Sutherland v. Stopes, the clash over contraception should be seen in the light of the historical context .

References

• British Medical Journal, Obituary Halliday G Sutherland, M.D. April 30, 1960 pages 1368-9
• Halliday Sutherland, Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians
• Harley Williams, 'Sutherland, Halliday Gibson (1882-1960)',rev.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004.
• Michael Korda, Making the List: A Cultural History of the American Bestseller 1900-1999, Barnes and Noble 2001. ISBN 0-7607-2559-4.
• The Tablet Saturday November 29, 1924
• Misplaced Pages article on Marie Stopes
• Jane Carey, The Racial Imperatives of Sex: Birth Control and Eugenics in Britain, the United States and Australia in the Interwar Years Women's History Review 21, no.5(2012): 753-552 Monash University

• Pending AfC submissions
• Pending AfC submissions in article space