Major General Francis Arthur Sutton M.C. (born England 14 February 1884, died Hong Kong 22 October 1944) was an English adventurer known as "One Arm Sutton" after losing part of an arm by a hand grenade at the Battle of Gallipoli where he was awarded the Military Cross.[1][2]

A product of Eton College, Sutton studied two years of engineering at University of London before working in civil engineering in Argentina, Mexico, and the US after 1906.

Sutton held a commission in the Royal Engineers[3] during World War I. Following the war he built railways in Mexico and Argentina and also mined for gold in Siberia and Korea.

Sutton travelled to China where he had purchased manufacturing rights for the Stokes Mortar that he provided to various warlords.[4] He became a major general for the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin. In Mukden, Sutton provided hospitality to Aloha Baker on her round-the-world drive as her party passed through a war zone.[5]

During World War II he was interned in Hong Kong [1] where he died of dysentery.[6][7][8]

Notes

  1. ^ "No. 29240". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 July 1915. p. 7283.
  2. ^ "One-Arm Sutton". Western Mail. 7 September 1933. p. 12 – via Trove.
  3. ^ "WAR PENSION (LIEUT. F. A. SUTTON)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 8 March 1927.
  4. ^ Jowett, Philip China's Wars: Rousing the Dragon 1894–1949 Osprey Publishing, 20 Nov 2013, p. 130
  5. ^ "Call to Adventure" by Aloha Baker, Dover 2020, page 127.
  6. ^ Brian L. Evans. "Francis Arthur Sutton". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  7. ^ Graham Lees (19–20 February 2005). "Man with a past". Weekend Standard. Archived from the original on 5 March 2005. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
  8. ^ "Casualty". www.cwgc.org.

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