3811 Private Lawrence Hendley Suttie, MM

[archie777]

Military Medal (MM) (Geo.V) 3811 Pte L.H. Suttie 2/S.A.Inf.; 
BWM Cpl L.H. Suttie 2nd S.A.I.;

AVM (Bil.) Cpl L.H. Suttie 2nd S.A.I.; 
1939-45 Star; Africa Star; DM; WM; ASM 144731 L.H. Suttie. 

 

MM LONDON GAZETTE 14 JANUARY 1918
The MM citation is worded as follows: 
3811 Private Lawrence Hendley Suttie, 2nd Regiment South African Infantry

"For conspicuous bravery during the operations EAST of YPRES on the 20th and 21st September 1917. He showed magnificent courage and devotion to duty throughout the action and as a company runner safely delivered several important messages to Battn. Headquarters without loss of time, although on occasions a heavy enemy Artillery barrage had to be passed 
through.

 

On returning to the front line he was on all occasions loaded with water, ammunition and stores according to the requirements of his company. This man was also employed in running along the front line under rifle and machine gun fire.

 

His conduct throughout was splendid. He was wounded in the execution of his duty on the evening of the 21st". Lawrence Hendley Suttie was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1896. He was educated at The Boy's Model School in the city.

 

On his discharge from the Army in 1919 he returned to Pietermaritzburg and took up a position with the local municipality. On the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the Natal Carbineers, and refusing a commission, fought in the ranks during the Abyssinian campaign. He re-joined the municipal Water Department on his return and after rising to the senior position of City Engineer he retired in 1958.

 

Hereafter he joined the Natal Tanning Extract Company until his final retirement in 1965 just three years before his death in 1968. 

 

Lawrence Suttie served with the 2nd S.A.I. in France and Flanders. He was wounded on three occasions, on 11 October 1916, on 12 April 1917 (Arras) and on 21 September 1917 (Ypres). 

 

He was awarded his MM on 27 October 1917 and was presented with his medal ribbon on the parade held after the Memorial Service at Delville Wood on Sunday 17 February 1918. 

On this occasion he following citation was read out at the presentation: 
"For conspicuous gallantry near YPRES on 20th/21st September, 1917. As a Company runner he delivered important messages under heavy shell fire and carried water and ammunition to the front line. He was eventually wounded in the execution of his duty".

He was commissioned after the end of hostilities on 21st December 1918. In a note dated 4 April 1986 Suttie's widow wrote as follows: 

 

"He joined up in 1915 and went through Delville Wood without a scratch but later in the battle of Passchendale Ridge he was a dispatch runner and a sniper shot him right through the back. He said he lay quiet for a while till all seemed safe, he got up bleeding badly and all he remembered was falling into headquarters then waking up in hospital.

 

The D (doctor) told him he was the luckiest man alive (as) the bullet had just missed his spine. He had the two bullet marks all his life. But that wound never worried him.

 

In another battle he was wounded in the arm pit and through that he had to give up his cricket, because when he lifted his arm high it gave way and he would clasp his other arm and nothing could be done till it released itself otherwise he enjoyed life till he was 72.

 

He won the Military Medal for bravery at Passchendale Ridge and became a lieutenant. At the end of the War he was made Repatriation Officer to the SA troops with the result he only arrived back in South Africa in September 1919." 

The History of the South African Forces in France by John Buchan (p 142-144) offers some insight into the nature of the fighting on 20th September 1917 at Ypres:

 

"Few struggles in the campaign were more desperate or carried out in a more gruesome battlefield. The mass of quagmires, splintered woods, ruined husks of "pill boxes", water filled shell holes, and foul creeks which made up the land on both sides of the Menin Road was a sight which, to the recollection of most men, must seem like a fevered nightmare.

 

It was the classic soil on which, during the First Battle of Ypres, the 1st and 2nd Division had stayed the German rush for the Channel. Then it had been a battered but recognizable and featured countryside; now the elements seem to have blended with each other to make of it a limbo outside mortal experience and almost beyond human imagining. 

Only on some of the tortured hills of Verdun could a parallel be found. The battle of 20th September showed to what heights of endurance the British soldier can attain. It was an example, too, of how thought and patience may achieve success in spite of every disadvantage of weather, terrain, and enemy strength.

 

Delville Wood was still for the Brigade the most heroic episode in the War. But its advance on 20th September must without doubt be reckoned its most successful achievement up to that date in the campaign. It carried one of the strongest of the enemy's position, and assisted the brigades both on its right and left to take two forts which blocked their way The 2nd Regiment had 61 killed (including 3 officers), and 244 wounded and missing."