Biography of Garioch's time as a POW which formed the basis of his war poety.



Garioch began his life as a poet in Edinburgh in the 1930s and in 1940 collaborated with Sorley Maclean to produce 17 poems for 6d . In 1941 he was conscripted into the Royal Corps of Signals and married Margaret (Peg) Lillie in early 1942 before being sent abroad. He served in the North African campaign, was captured and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Italy and Germany. On his return Sutherland worked as a school teacher in London and Hayes, Kent, eventually returning to Edinburgh in 1959 and retiring in 1964, while his alter ego Garioch continued to develop as a poet. As well as writing comic and satirical verse he also translated the Latin of George Buchanan and the demotic Italian of Giuseppe Belli into Scots.