John Sutherland was educated at Queens' College Cambridge from 1941-2 and 1946-48, graduating with a BA in 1947 and MA in 1949. He was a Radar Officer in the Royal Navy between 1942 and 1946, serving in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. After graduating, he served an engineering apprenticeship with Metropolitan Vickers and became a radar development engineer until joining Marconi as a radar research engineer in 1954, becoming a project manager in 1956, Manager Defence Projects 1962, Manager Radar Division 1965, Managing Director, Marconi Radar Systems Limited 1969-1982, and Vice-Chairman The Marconi Company 1982-83.He retired from Marconi in 1983.
From 1983 to the early 1990s he was a Director of Acorn Computer Group, plc, Director MTI Managers Limited (venture capital), and Chairman/ Director/Consultant to several high-tech companies. He was President of the Electronic Engineering Association 1980-81 and was appointed CBE `for services to export' in 1980.
Forty Years of Marconi Radar from 1946 to 1986 - GEC REVIEW, VOL. 13, NO. 3, 1998
Ground Radar in the Seventies - the story of the S600 Series
Air Defence Radar for the '80s
New Data Handling for Air Defence
Hand-over of the LAHR installation- 18th August 1970
After dinner speech by John Sutherland at 'REAL TIME CLUB', Bertorelli's, July 1973
Presidential Lecture given to Chelmsford Engineering Society 1974