Initially he engaged in various occupations in Johannesburg, Mafeking, Matabeleland, Lake Tanganyika and the Congo, including professional boxing, running African trading stores, and working as a labour overseer on the construction of the Beira-Mashonaland railway.

The German authorities attempted to detain him but, by making a detour of 500 miles (800 km), Sutherland made his way through Portuguese East Africa to Nyasaland, where upon arrival he was engaged by the governor as an intelligence officer.

After the conquest of German East Africa, Sutherland was made chief intelligence officer and provost marshal on Brigadier-General Norley's staff with the rank of lieutenant, and in 1916 he was promoted to captain.

Sutherland was mentioned in dispatches on several occasions and was awarded the Légion d'Honneur for his services as a special guide to the Nyasaland Field Force.

[7] Eventually Sutherland died from the poison's effects in the Yubo Sleeping Sickness Camp on 26 June 1932, and in his will he bequeathed all of his property to Major Anderson.