SUTHERLAND, Donald Alexander Vivian
| Service Number: | 4820 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 14 February 1916, Enlisted at Casula |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 19th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia, 2 March 1898 |
| Home Town: | Balmain, Leichhardt, New South Wales |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Railway Carriage Builder |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 3 May 1917, aged 19 years |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Haymarket NSW Government Railway and Tramway Honour Board, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 14 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 4820, 19th Infantry Battalion, Enlisted at Casula | |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Apr 1916: | Involvement Private, 4820, 19th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '13' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Ceramic embarkation_ship_number: A40 public_note: '' | |
| 13 Apr 1916: | Embarked Private, 4820, 19th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Ceramic, Sydney |
Help us honour Donald Alexander Vivian Sutherland's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Geoffrey Gillon
He was 19 and the son of Mrs. Emily Kate Sutherland. of "Bellerine", Glenview St., Greenwich, New South Wales.
Biography contributed by John Oakes
Donald Alex Vivian SUTHERLAND (Service Number 4820) was born on 2nd March 1898 at Muswellbrook. He began with the NSW Railways on 6th August 1912 as a ‘sheet dresser’ in the Stores Branch at Eveleigh when he was 14-years-old. On 19th March 1914 he transferred to the Car and Wagon Department and became an apprentice car builder in the Locomotive Branch. He was still in this role when he joined the Expeditionary Forces on 1st February 1916. He enlisted at Casula on 14th February, claiming three years apprenticeship with the Railways Commissioner. He claimed that he was 18 years and 11 months old, whereas he was really just 17 years and 11 months of age. He cited three years compulsory military training and gave his mother, Emily Kate Sutherland living in Balmain as his next of kin.
He was allotted to the 12th Reinforcements to the 19th Battalion. He embarked HMAT ‘Ceramic’ at Sydney on 13th April 1916 and went to Egypt. On 29th May he joined the 5th Training Battalion and embarked HMT ‘Megantic’ at Alexandria for passage to England, reaching Plymouth on 7th June 1916. Whilst at sea he was admitted to the ship’s hospital for an unspecified illness.
In September he proceeded overseas to France and was taken on strength by the 19th Battalion on 6th October 1916. In November he was admitted to hospital with Influenza. He was transferred to the Ambulance Train and then the 39th General Hospital at Le Havre.
He re-joined the Battalion on 25th December 1916. He was killed in action on 3rd May 1917 at Bullecourt. The only description of the place of his burial, makeshift as it might have been, was given to his mother by his mate. She duly passed it, in 1921, directly in a letter to the Minister for Defence, Senator Pearce, as was her method:
‘Where Don now lies is one (1) mile this side of Reincourt just behind our own line, as we managed to get his two lines after a very hot go.’
Sutherland’s remains were never located, and he has no grave. He in remembered on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial in France. The National Roll of Honour correctly records his age at the date of death as 19 years.
A pension of £2 per fortnight was awarded to his widowed mother from 24th July 1917.
- based on the Australian War Memorial Honour Roll and notes for the Great Sydney Central Station honour Board.