Andrew Keith Sutherland was born in Croydon, UK on 11 March 1945. He emigrated to Australia and completed his secondary education at Haileybury College in Melbourne and went on to The Melbourne University. He had registered for National Service and his birthdate was drawn out in the first National Service Ballot. He deferred his National Service and graduated as a Bachelor of Laws in 1967. He gained employment as a Trainee Solicitor with Evans Guss and Co.
On 24 April 1969, he commenced his National Service as 3796158 with the second intake of that year. Initially he was posted to the 2nd Recruit Training Battalion at Puckapunyal as a Recruit where, after a couple of weeks and some challenging assessment trials, he was selected for officer training and commenced that with Class 2/69 on 9 May at the Officer Training Unit, at Scheyville (north-west of Sydney). He was allocated to Corporal Paul Jones’ 8 Section in Sgt Peter Busby’s 4 Platoon, in B Company in Hut B3, the hut behind King’s Row. In his Senior Term, Andrew was the Section Commander for 8 Section in Sergeant Tim Overall’s 4 Platoon. His ‘Son’ was Cadet Brian McCarthy. In the re-organisation into 4 companies, 8 Section moved to 3 Platoon still under Sergeant Overall.
After Six months rigorous training, Andrew graduated with his class as a Probationary 2nd Lieutenant on 3 October 1969. Thus, he qualified as an Infantry Platoon Commander who, with further training, would have been ready to lead soldiers in Vietnam.
Recognizing his civilian qualification, the Army then allocated Andrew to the Legal Corps and posted him to Headquarters Southern Command (at Victoria Barracks, Melbourne) as a Legal Officer, with the rank of
Temporary Captain from 4 October 1969. His Army duties there most likely included Courts Martial administration, and mountains of paperwork such as providing legal advice on wills and contracts. At some time during his service Andrew was also an Acting Major. Andrew completed his full-time National Service obligation on 22 April 1971. For his service, Andrew was awarded the Australian Defence Medal and the Anniversary of National Service Medal.
OTU class 2/69 was remarkable in its cohesion. This led to many reunions around Australia and overseas travel with partners.
Robin Hunt said during Andrew’s funeral: ‘I was in the OTU class immediately behind Andrew’s and therefore I was a “Junior” when he was a “Senior”. This gave him the opportunity to cause me, and my peers, grief big time! Andrew never did that. He had a reputation of being fair, courteous, and thoroughly decent and that’s how we knew him through the rest of his life.’
Peter Don, a classmate of Andrew’s at Scheyville, described Andrew as “the personification of a real Officer and Gentleman who not only demonstrated his own leadership abilities at Scheyville and but was inspirational for his classmates during the course and in later years”.
Andrew was married twice. In his first marriage he was the father of two children, Catherine and James. Later Andrew married Kathie and became a deary loved step-father of Nicholas Robb and his family Nicole, Harry, Hamish and Isabelle. Andrew died peacefully at home, aged 80 years, after a long illness, on 7 May 2025. His funeral service was held on 18 May 2025. (With Robin Hunt, 3/69)