Thomas Suthons
Section 3, Lot 402
Prospect Cemetery
When he died on February 13, 1987, Thomas Suthons was the oldest World War I veteran in the Toronto Branch of the War Amputations of Canada. He was 91. Born in Birmingham, England in 1895, he came to Canada with his two brothers when he was 10. He later signed up for the 81st Battalion (which became the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles), and fought overseas from 1915 to 1917. Suthons lost his left hand in battle and returned to Toronto where he trained as a telegraph operator. He joined the Canadian Pacific Railway where he worked for 47 years, retiring in 1963. He was a member of the Morse Telegraphers’ Club, and was known around the world as operator “SU.” Mr. Suthons was featured in a War Amputations of Canada film called Never Again and, as the oldest surviving veteran in the region, met Queen Elizabeth during a Royal Tour of Canada in 1948.