Initially this was called the Sir Arthur Sutherland Trophy, but following the death of Arthur’s son Gordon in 2004, it was renamed The Sutherland Trophy.
Gordon Sutherland was born on 10 January 1908 and passed away on 2 December 2004 just a few weeks shy of his 97th birthday. In Aston Martin history the Sutherlands are largely overshadowed by Lionel Martin, Bert Bertelli and Sir David Brown. However, without Gordon’s managerial expertise and his father’s investment in the firm, Aston Martin would be one of those long-lost marques. Gordon was born into a Northeast of England shipping family, the fourth and youngest child of Sir Arthur Sutherland.
Sir Arthur Sutherland was born on 2 October 1867 and died on 29 March 1953. Sir Arthur joined his father’s shipping company BJ Sutherland to start a steamer department within the company. This followed his clerk’s apprenticeship at shipbroking company Lindsay Gracie & Co. He later became Chairman of BJ Sutherland as well as Chairman of several other shipping companies. Furthermore, he owned the Newcastle Chronicle newspaper and Blythe Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company. He was politically astute, becoming Lord Mayor of Newcastle and later High Sheriff of Northumberland. In 1920 he was created Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) and in 1921 created a baronet. In addition, he was made Commander of the Order of St Olav by King Haakon Vll of Norway. He was not exactly short of money and being somewhat of a philanthropist donated £200,000 in 1936 to start Kings College Medical school in Newcastle and a further £50,000 to form a dental school there. In today’s money £14.5 million and £3.5 million respectively. So, investing in his son’s purchase of Aston Martin for £10,000 was not a hardship. In today’s money a mere snip at £700,000. Towards the end of his life he was, along with fellow directors of his shipbuilding company, accused of bribing the Admiralty. He was tried in court and found not guilty, but his fellow directors were found guilty and jailed. Not a pleasant thing to endure at any age but even worse when you are in your seventies.
Gordon joined the family firm but being mad on cars, shipping did not really appeal. Hardly surprising when watching racing at Brooklands; ships would have seemed very pedestrian. Much to his father’s annoyance he enrolled on a 2-year Automobile Engineering course, graduating with honours. Following that he joined Alvis in the Technical Drawing Office where he went on to meet Sammy Davis, who in turn introduced him to Bert Bertelli. In 1932 he learnt of Aston’s financial difficulties and was able to persuade his father to buy the company. Probably not unlike Lance Stroll today asking dad Lawrence whether he could buy the company for him.
Oh, he just did, I forgot.
Fortunately, Gordon was business savvy and Bertelli left the company as he couldn’t come to terms with Gordon’s business strategies. Gordon is perhaps unique in the annals of Aston Martin history as he is the only owner to have made money out of the company and was astute enough to sell out to David Brown when he did.
The performance Astons during Gordon’s tenure at the company are still much desired today and Jock Horsfall in one of them put the company back at the forefront of front-line motor sport. Gordon along with Claude Hill went on to develop the Atom. Not exactly the most handsome of vehicles but technically and engineering wise extremely advanced. Not only was Gordon a good businessman he was a good engineer as well, don’t forget he came out with honours on his engineering course and worked with distinguished and far-sighted engineers at Alvis. In recent years Dr Ulrich Bez fulfilled a very similar role being both an engineer and exceptional CEO.
Aston Martin was not the end of Gordon’s interests in the marque or the motor industry. He went on to acquire Friary Motors that serviced and provided parts for pre-war Astons. Later he bought the coach builders ED Abbott of Farnham who were to build estate bodies for Ford. ED Abbott also bodied a very early Ferrari. Sadly this is about the ugliest Ferrari ever, looking more like a period Vauxhall Velox than a Ferrari. Despite that aberration Gordon made a success of the company, eventually selling it after 10 years when Ford started to body their own estate cars.
He retired and turned to his early roots of the sea by taking up sailing, eventually moving to the south coast of Ireland. During his lifetime Gordon owned more than 130 cars and you can read about his experiences with these in six published articles called 'My Sixty Years of Motoring'. These were published in AM magazine in 1984/5; should you wish to read them the Trust would be able to supply copies of the articles, no doubt for a small fee.