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Life
[?-1961]; [or Aleck; pseud. of A. D. Sutherland]; arrived in N. Ireland
from Glasgow on the passenger ferry Hazel at Coleraine harbour
with 2/6s.; took employment with K & D Baxter (Coleraine); later worked
as painter-decorator and est. own business; issued two novels, neither
successful; appt. Chairman of the Coleraine Building Society; Borough
Councillor and figure; in 1914 he produced a series of paintings of the
Ulster Volunteers crossing the Bann Bridge, presented gave to the Borough
shortly before his death and since been neglected; author of Murder
Hole Road (1939), and An Irish Girl’s Obsession
(1948), novels. IF2
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References
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction: A Guide to Irish Novels,
Tales, Romances and Folklore [Pt. 2] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists Murder Hole Road (London: Stockwell 1939) [a gypsy and onion dealer
hanged for the murder of Lord Colrigg, though the malefactors are Colrigg’s
br. Spencer and his servant Tosh, who later murders Lady Diane; Spencer
stabs himself, and Tosh flees to live in Portrush as a pretended hermit;
set in Coleraine]; also An Irish Girl’s Obsession (Ballycastle:
Scarlett 1948) [goes to London, imprisoned for blackmail of her seducee,
having been a chorus girl and a parlour-maid; a Gaiety girl in NY, she
marries rich husband, connives to seduce and wreck another business man,
divorces, and returns to Ireland to live in obscurity]; set in period
1850-1910.
University of Ulster Library, Morris Collection holds Murder Hole Road (1939).
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Notes
Acknowledgement: The biographical information in this record has been supplied by Willis “Speedy” Moore
(Coleraine Chronicle).
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