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JIM SUTHERLAND: Known to all as Big Jim. Was club leader from 1961 - Nov
1969.
TAKEN FROM:
SPOTLIGHT ON YOUTH.
by Geoffery Smith, Hackney
Gazette 21st November 1969.
PEDRO CLUB MOURNS 'BIG JIM'
The
death of Mr. Jim Sutherland, leader of the Pedro Youth Club, Rushmore road,
Clapton, on Saturday,
came
as an immense shock to all who knew him. "Big Jim"-as he was called -
and the Pedro Club were synonymous, it is difficult to imagine that the club
must now go on without him.
Jim
50 has been the leader of the Pedro
Club since 1961, and had rarely missed a single night at
the club in all those eight years, assistant club leader, Ian Guild told me what
happened Jim collapsed at the club last Thursday, "I was helping out
downstairs" said Ian, when one of the club members ran downstairs and said
he thought Jim was going to pass out.
"I raced upstairs, but by the time I got there he was already on the floor,
we phoned for an ambulance
and he was
rushed straight to Hackney Hospital.
"COMPLETELY
STUNNED"
Mrs
Simon Hornby, chairman of the club, said; " we are all completely stunned,
words cannot describe
how much we all miss him, he was the Pedro Club.
"he was such an exceptional man in so many ways, he possessed the
qualities of humour, kindness,
courage,
wisdom and strength in abundance, I never knew anyone who cared about a club so
much
as
Jim did for the Pedro."
A
very sad aspect of Jim's untimely death is that the premises of the new Pedro
Club - which cost, £35,000 - will be ready for occupation in only a few weeks
time, the new club was Jim's pipe-dream,
he had
fought for the past eight years for the new building , and his eyes would
brighten up whenever
he
talked about it - which was often, in fact, Jim had been talking about the new
club only seconds
before
his collapse.
said
Mrs. Hornby; it is an awful tragedy that he should die when the realisation of
his dream
was
so near"
Jim
leaves a wife and two sons, the funeral took place at Hampstead Cemetery.
added Mrs.
Hornby, "all the club members thought the world of him and there will
never be another
leader
like him, but the last thing Jim would have wanted was for the club to close
down, Ian Guild
will
be carrying on in the tradition that Jim has established so well;
Honorary
Treasurer, Mr John Hughes-Reckitt, echoed
the thoughts of many in saying;
Hackney
will miss him badly.
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