Daniel Manson Sutherland

The son of Daniel and Elizabeth, in March 1924 the family moved to Dilton Farm, Brockenhurst and Daniel Sutherland, known as Manson, attended Brockenhurst Primary School, where he remained until he was old enough to leave. He then worked full time on his fathers farm - Dilton Farm at Boldre.

Manson was more interested in the machines used on the land than farming itself, so when he married Lucy Harvey in 1937 and moved to New Inn Lane, East Boldre he took a job at Percy Hendy's of Chandlers Ford as an agricultural fitter. This new job involved a bicycle ride of 22 miles each way. Manson continued this trek for 9 months until he left for a similar job with the Forestry Commisssion at Lyndhurst Road Station, Ashurst, where he remained until 1946.

He seems to have joined Auxiliary Units later on, being listed in the nominal roll as joining the Home Guard on 21 Jan 1943, which is presumably when he came into the Patrol. His Stand Down certificate gives different date, 1 Apr 1942, but also has the wrong first name, perhaps understandable if he was always called Manson.

In April 1944 he appeared before the County bench because of regularly arriving late for work in January. He blamed not having any batteries for his bicycle lights, meaning he had to await daylight to be able to cycle the 13 miles to work for 8am. The transport from East Boldre promised when he signed up to service the tractors at Lyndhurst Road had ceased after the 2 1/2 years leaving him to cycle. The magistrates sided with the Ministry and he was bound over and required to pay over £1 in costs. Later he was transferred to 9th (New Forest) Battalion Hampshire Home Guard, the local ordinary Home Guard unit. 

In the early 1950's he took a job in the Esso refineries for the contractors, Whesso and latterly William Neil, where he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the plant involved in the construction of the large oil tanks. When the contract ended in the 1960's Manson joined Martin's Garage in East Boldre as a car mechanic. He worked here for several years before leaving after a disagreemnet relating to him repairing cars for his friends. Manson then decided to run his own business from home repairing anything mechanical - from cars to lawn mowers, until he was over 70 years old.