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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 lived at 5 Stafford Terrace Kensington in London and had six children. He 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 (later "Sir"), 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 cinema film on health education.

During the first world war, Sutherland served in the Royal Navy (includng service on the RMS Empress of Britain 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 was a successful writer of books and articles. His major works were:

• Pulmonary Tuberculosis in General Practice (1916)
• Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine against the Neo-Malthusians (1922)
• 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)

The Arches of the Years was Sutherland's most successful book. It was a bestseller for 1933, ran to 35 editions in English, and was translated into eight languages.

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

Opposition to Marie Stopes and the issues behind their dispute

In 1922 Sutherland wrote Birth Control: A Statement of Christian Doctrine Against the Neo Malthusians. Marie Stopes was mentioned twice in the book. Both instances revealed what was becoming an increasingly bitter struggle between them, but it was the second instance that led to the Sutherland v. Stopes litigation.

In the first instance, the book reproduced a letter Stopes had written to the Sussex Daily News which had appeared on 17th November. Sutherland drew attention to a paragraph which was, he said, 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 headings “Specially Hurtful to the Poor” and “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."

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 legal battle between Sutherland and Stopes is seen in the context of birth control. At the time of the battle however, there were bigger issues in play: the doctrines of Eugenics and Malthusianism.

Eugenics

At the time the issues of birth control and eugenics were closely related. One historian has stated that "in the interwar years birth control and eugenics were so intertwined as to be synonymous".

Stopes had been interested in eugenics at least since 1912 when she joined the Eugenics Education Society and subsequently had "founded her own organizations to promote eugenic birth control", primarily the "Society for Constructive and Racial Progress” which aimed to achieve "the illumination of sex life as the basis for racial progress". Her letter to the Sussex Daily News (quoted in Birth Control) had been signed as President of this Society.

Stopes Radiant Motherhood: A Book for thse Who Are Creating the Future was published in 1920. In the chapter "A New and Irradiated Race" she outlined her "ardent dream" of "human stock represented only by well-formed, desired and well-endowed beautiful men and women." She then listed "two main dangers", the first being "ignorance" and the second "inborn incapacity which lies in the vast and ever increasing stock of degerate, feeble-minded, and unbalanced who are now in our midst and who devastate social customs." She outlined the ways to deal with the first obstacle of ignorance before conceding that "the other obstacle presents a deeper and more difficult task" which would have to deal with "the terrible debasing power of the inferior, the depraved and feeble-minded, to whom reason means nothing and can mean nothing, who are thriftless and unmanageable yet appallingly prolific." The solution was "a few very simple Acts of Parliament" for the the sterilization of "the miserable, the degerate the utterly wretched in mind and body."

"a family planning pioneer in Europe at the turn of the 19th century fought enormous prejudice to establish the first family planning clinic in London in 1915, believing strongly that until women could determine the numbers of children they had, they would never be able to lift themselves out of poverty and ill health" (source: Marie Stopes International http://web.archive.org/web/20080720024851/http://www.mariestopes.org.au/about-history.html viewed on 26/1/2014). Another description "In 1918 Stopes wrote a concise guide to contraception called Wise Parenthood. Marie Stopes' book upset the leaders of the Church of England who believed it was wrong to advocate the use of birth control. Roman Catholics were especially angry, as the Pope had made it clear that he condemned all forms of contraception. Despite this opposition, Marie continued her campaign and in 1921 founded the Society for Constructive Birth Control. With financial help from her rich second husband, Humphrey Roe, Marie also opened the first of her birth-control clinics in Holloway on 17th March 1921." (source: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wstopes.htm) and reactionary forces (source Misplaced Pages).

Malthusianism

The Charles Bradlaugh mentioned in Sutherland's contentious passage of birth control was tried 1877 (with Annie Besant) for publishing 'obscene literature'. They had published an American Malthusian tract in Britain. Charles Knowlton's original document was called The Fruits of Philosophy. For the British version, Bradlaugh and Besant had added the subtitle: An Essay on the Population Question.

Sutherland was familiar with the conditions of the poor and working class through growing up in Glasgow, his work on tuberculosis generally, and specifically his clinic in Regents Park and the open-air school. His "Statement Against the Neo Malthusians" argued the cause of poverty was not hereditary or over-population, but the conditions in which people lived and he railed against those who advocated controlling the reproductive rights of the poor.

in which he attacked “the essential fallacies of Malthusian teaching”. He wrote that poverty and disease were not caused by over population, but arose from “under-development” among other reasons.

Further the use of artificial was not accepted unversally by the adherents of eugenics. This is perhaps unsurprising since it was a broad movement, but as has been noted by one professor her establishing the Society for Constructive and Racial Progress had been in part that she was "annoyed that the Society refused to place birth control prominently on its platform".

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. In order to understand what the issues behind Sutherland v. Stopes. To see it in terms of those who advocated artificial contraception and those who opposed it is simplistic and at times disingenuous.

In the case, Sutherland was supported by the Roman Catholic Church. He had converted to Catholicism in (date). To take a stand against Stopes, he was opposing Stopes and her many inflential supporters includng...

References

1. British Medical Journal, Obituary Halliday G Sutherland, M.D. April 30, 1960 pages 1368-9
2. Harley Williams, 'Sutherland, Halliday Gibson (1882-1960)',rev.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36372,accessed 24 Jan 2014
3. Harley Williams, 'Sutherland, Halliday Gibson (1882-1960)',rev.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36372,accessed 24 Jan 2014

• 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 New York, PJ Kennedy and Sons, 1922.
• Harley Williams, 'Sutherland, Halliday Gibson (1882-1960)',rev.Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36372,accessed 24 Jan 2014
• 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
• Website for Marie Stopes International http://web.archive.org/web/20080720024851/http://www.mariestopes.org.au/about-history.html viewed 26/1/2014.

• Pending AfC submissions
• Pending AfC submissions in article space