10/02/2025
Norwich, GB 5 C
Researching and reporting on the lives of some really interesting people (RIP)

DON SUTHERLAND, aged 103

FLY KITES NOT DRONES

Born in Coventry, Don’s mother, Lilian Ferraby, was a teacher who married a Scot, William Sutherland, and was forced to give up her job. William was an engineer. Don was one of five children.

William, as an engineer, was in a reserved occupation, so was exempt from serving in the First World War, but his brother Adam was killed on the Western Front in 1916. This had a profound effect on the family.

They were Presbyterian Christians.

The family moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1927, when William got a job with the arms manufacturer Vickers Armstrong.

Vickers Armstrong factory (courtesy Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums)

Don’s father travelled extensively. In the mid-1930s, he went to the Leipzig Trade Fair. There, he was put up by a German family. They were such kind hosts that William invited them to come and stay in Newcastle.

They thanked him, but felt the situation in Germany at that time, was too unstable for them to travel, but they would visit when things had calmed down.

However, the German family never visited – and the Sutherlands never heard of them again.

Don attended a local school, where he gained his certificate.

Aged just 15, he left education and went to work in an insurance office.

In 1939, Don passed his exams for the Chartered Insurance Institute, becoming a fully qualified insurance agent.

He had been considering signing up for the military, when he witnessed something that changed his life. “I nearly did join up. I was very much in two minds”.

He was walking through a local park when he saw young men training for the army. The sergeant was encouraging the men to bayonet human effigies in the face and stomach. Don was horrified! “I could not do that. Whatever happened to ‘Love thy Neighbour?”

Don immediately registered as a conscientious objector and asked for exemption from war service on religious grounds.

Anybody who applied for this was put before a tribunal. It was in a courtroom, presided over by a judge, and was deliberately designed to be as intimidating as possible.

If the application was accepted, the objector was offered ‘alternative service’ (e.g. ambulance driving). If any war service at all was rejected, the person was classed as an ‘absolutist’ and was sent to prison.

Don conducted his own defence at his tribunal. He stated, “We should love one another.”

He was granted conscientious objector status and was offered ‘alternative service’ as a fire watcher in Newcastle. He rejected this and was fined £10. If he refused to pay, he would go to prison.

Without consulting him, Don’s parents paid the fine immediately. He said later on that this was, “the easy way out”, and felt he should have been doing hard labour in Durham prison with the other ‘absolutists’.

After this, Don sold the ‘Peace News’ paper on the streets of Newcastle.

In 1941, Don gave up his insurance job and went to work in a farming community at Holton cum Beckering in Lincolnshire. It was called Collow Abbey Farm. Everybody working there was a fellow conscientious objector.

The farming community at Holton Courtesy Guardian)

A local farmer who sympathised with their cause, had handed a farm over to the group.

There, Don’s closest friend was artist Roy Broadbent (father to the actor, Jim), who, with his wife Dee, a sculptor, had started the community.

Jim Broadbent (courtesy Rotten Tomatoes)

It was a tough life – especially for somebody not used to farming. “The work was hard. I was a puny man, not used to that sort of thing.”

Don was put in charge of a wagon and horses team and had many other duties such as pulling sugar beet out of the ground by hand.

In the evenings, after work, there was a very active social scene with painting, singing and acting. He met many people from all backgrounds. “It was really a community feeling. The experience completely altered my life.”

Don was also taken aback by how warmly the conscientious objectors were greeted by the local Lincolnshire community. He had expected hostility and negativity.

In 1943, Don met Betty Skinner, a horticultural student, who was visiting her brother Bill, another member of the community.

They married when the war was over. Their first home was a Nissan hut without electricity or water.

Roy and Dee Broadbent bought some abandoned Nissan huts in nearby Wickenby and created the Broadbent Theatre (it burned down in 1960 and they resurrected it in an old Methodist chapel).

In 1950, Don and Betty moved to a cottage and smallholding on Bleasby Moor (also in Lincolnshire), where they raised their six children: Andrew, Alistair, Helen, Isobel, Brian and Janet.

They also joined the Lincoln Quaker Meeting.

Don was still working on a farm, but a serious injury caused premature retirement. He then worked as a production controller in an iron foundry.

He also became the Quaker chaplain at Lincoln Prison, a position he held for 36 years.

Don became a school governor.

Don was also a campaigner for Amnesty International and was pro-active in the various campaigns against nuclear weapons (such as CND). He demonstrated against missiles being deployed at RAF Molesworth in Cambridgeshire and was part of the ‘Fly Kites Not Drones’ movement.

Don also was a member of Servas International – ‘peace and understanding through travel and hosting’. He welcomed many visitors into his home and travelled extensively too.

A Japanese visitor once taught him origami. After that, Don would teach people origami throughout Lincolnshire, especially  school children. His particular skill was creating cranes.

Aged 70, Don took up veteran sports. He initially took diving lessons and then entered national competitions, winning several gold medals. He was also a keen swimmer and cyclist.

In 1995, Don and Betty moved into Lincoln. Three years later, she died there. Their daughter, Helen, had predeceased Betty.

Don became a keen gardener, producing lots of fruit and vegetables, and learned how to be an excellent (vegetarian) cook.

In 2017, the Broadbent Theatre in Wickenby, put on Ian Sharp’s play ‘Conchies’, based on the Collow Abbey Farm community. Don played a cameo role – and then went on a national tour with the play. He even appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2018.

Don only gave up active sports in his late nineties but continued to enjoy the arts, particularly dance, poetry and theatre.

In an interview, Don was asked about his time as a conscientious objector. “It’s a difficult thing taking a stand when you know other people have suffered.”

He was asked if he had any advice for young people. I try hard not to have any prejudices. Accept the positive from whatever source, even if a risk is involved. Try to act on your own initiative.”

Don died aged 103. He was the oldest member of Lincoln Quaker Meeting, and the last survivor of the Collow Abbey Farm community in Holton.

RIP – Remained Interested (in) Peace

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