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BUILT ON SOLID FOUNDATIONS DAVID GOLDWATER
from ONA 106
BUILT ON SOLID FOUNDATIONS
BY DAVID GOLDWATER (51-62)
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Sir Arthur Munro Sutherland (1878-1883), is so far, arguably the greatest benefactor in the history of the RGS. Though the school was to welcome his abundant generosity in later life, he was no academic and even stated that he, “Would have preferred to have left at 15 rather than at 16”.
Ultimately, as a steamship owner
and coal exporter, his business acumen manifested itself in the various fleets within the three companies he owned and controlled. The companies were consolidated into BJ Sutherland & Co. Ltd., which continued until his death in 1953.
Pupils at the RGS in Eskdale Terrace soon became aware of the extraordinary role Sutherland had played in the development of the school’s campus. With World War I raging and an Army Training Corps flourishing at the RGS, he gifted a rifle range and armoury (1915), which ONs may remember was situated on the south side of the school field next to the old Geography and Woodwork block, near the new sports facilities and Swimming Pool of today. Lord Mayor of Newcastle (1918-19), Sutherland became a School Governor in 1919. Sir Arthur, knighted in 1920, served as ONA President (24-36), became Deputy Chairman of Governors in 1930 and Chairman from 1935 until his death. In 1930, at a cost of £20,000 (2017 equivalent of £1.15 million), he gifted the Swimming (Sutherland) Baths on the site of the new Library and replaced by the ultra-modern
Above: Old Swimming Baths Below: Gymnasium Plaque in Caretakers’ Yard, Lambton Road
facility across the school field. In its day, an amazing pool, used for many years by ‘un-clad’ boys – another age! The following year, he provided the cost of the school crest through the College of Heralds. He funded a large gymnasium (1937), which will be remembered by those who either excelled in strenuous exercise including boxing or, alternatively, suffered the tensions of the examinations regularly held there. Sutherland Park in Benton, home of Novos RFC, was eventually purchased by the school with the help of an earlier, very low interest loan from his company. The Sutherlands also gifted the iconic JJ Binns organ (so much an integral part of the school’s Main Hall to this day) commemorating 138 Old Novocastrians who fell in World War I and later those who fell in World War II.
After a long and fulfilling life, Sir Arthur died peacefully in his sleep in March 1953 and was buried in Jesmond Old Cemetery, not far from his school and family home.
