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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 the ninth bestseller in the United States in 1933 in the Publisher's Weekly list and eventually 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 viewed as a “malignant attack” on the medical profession: “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.”

The "us" to which Stopes referred was the "Society for Constructive and Racial Progress” (she had sent the letter in her capacity as President of the Society.

Stopes was again mentioned, though not by name, under the heading “Specially Hurtful to the Poor” and sub-heading “Exposing the Poor to Experiment”. It read: “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 incensed by both refererences. In regard to the letter, further exchanges appeared in the British Medical Journal on 26th November 19?? and 10th December 19??. Given that Sutherland was quoting her published words and expressing an opinion on these, it was hardly actionable at law. It was in the second instance, however, that Stopes sought a legal remedy to what she saw as an attack on her reputation on the grounds of defamation. In modern times, the clash is seen in terms of the advocates of contraception and those who opposed it (for instance, The Misplaced Pages article on Marie Stopes states: “In 1922 a Roman Catholic doctor, Halliday Gibson Sutherland, wrote a book called Birth Control. In it, he attacked Stopes over her advocacy of the cervical cap”). Two titles - Stopes role as “President Society for Constructive and Racial Progress” and Sutherland’s book being “…Against the Neo-Malthusians” – indicate the contemporary context of the clash: between those for and against eugenics and Malthusianism. Both ideas are less fashionable now (in particular the reputation of eugenics has suffered following its practical application under the Nazi regime and compulsory sterilisations in the United States’ and Sweden) leaving contraception as the remnant that interests the modern mind. 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.

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

• Pending AfC submissions
• Pending AfC submissions in article space