SUTHERLAND – ERIC MACNAUGHT

Note:
IN HIS BOOK “THE GREAT BOER WAR“, ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE WROTE THE FOLLOWING :- UPON MAY 29TH, ONLY TWO DAYS BEFORE THE FINAL DECLARATION OF PEACE, A RAID WAS MADE BY A  FEW BOERS UPON THE NATIVE CATTLE RESERVES NEAR FREDERICSTAD.  A HANDFUL OF HORSEMEN PURSUED THEM, AND WERE AMBUSHED BY A CONSIDERABLE BODY OF THE ENEMY IN SOME HILLY COUNTRY TEN MILES FROM THE BRITISH LINES.  MOST OF THE PURSUERS GOT AWAY IN SAFETY,  BUT YOUNG SUTHERLAND, SECOND LIEUTENANT OF THE SEAFORTHS, AND ONLY A FEW MONTHS FROM ETON, FOUND HIMSELF SEPARATED FROM HIS HORSE AND IN A HOPELESS POSITION.  SCORNING TO SURRENDER, THE LAD ACTUALLY FOUGHT HIS WAY UPON FOOT FOR OVER A MILE BEFORE HE WAS SHOT DOWN BY THE HORSEMEN WHO CIRCLED AROUND HIM.  WELL MIGHT THE BOER COMMANDER DECLARE THAT IN THE WHOLE COURSE OF THE WAR HE HAD SEEN NO FINER EXAMPLE OF BRITISH COURAGE.  IT IS INDEED SAD THAT AT THIS LAST INSTANT A YOUNG LIFE SHOULD BE THROWN AWAY, BUT SUTHERLAND DIED IN A NOBLE FASHION FOR A NOBLE CAUSE, AND MANY INGLORIOUS YEARS WOULD BE A POOR SUBSTITUTE FOR THE EXAMPLE AND TRADITION WHICH SUCH A DEATH WILL LEAVE BEHIND.  MILDRED DOONER GAVE A SIMILAR ACCOUNT OF THE ACTION.