Born in Witney, Oxfordshire in 1919, Sutton spent some of his early life in Jersey and worked as a newspaper reporter in Northampton and later for a paper in Nottingham. He became a member of the RAFVR in October 1937, as an Airman u/t Pilot.
“Barry” Sutton joined the RAF on a short service commission in February 1939. After completing his training he went to No 56 Squadron at North Weald on 2 August 1939.
On 16 May 1940, ‘B’ Flight of 56, including Sutton, flew to Vitry-en-Artois in France. He shared in the destruction of a Do 17 on the 18th and later that day his Hurricane was jumped by a Bf 109 soon after taking off, and he was wounded in the foot. Sutton managed to return to Vitry. He was sent back to England on 23 May and designated non-effective sick. He rejoined 56 on 7 July.
Sutton claimed a Ju 87 destroyed on 25 July, a Bf 110 on August 13, a Bf 109 on the 16th and another Bf 110 on the 26th. He was shot down, possibly by a Spitfire, in combat over the Thames Estuary on 28 August 1940 and baled out, seriously burned, from Hurricane R 4198. Sutton was admitted to Canterbury Hospital and later transferred to the RAF Hospital at Halton.
After a year in hospital, Sutton was posted to the Middle East. He waited in Cairo for a posting and, in November 1941, set out for Burma and joined No 136 Squadron as a Flight Commander. He probably destroyed two Japanese Army 97 Fighters on 6 February 1942.
Later in February he took command of No 135 Squadron at Mingaladon. He probably destroyed one Japanese bomber and damaged another on the 25th. The squadron was ordered to withdraw on 5 March, firstly to Akyab and then to Dum Dum, in India.
In mid-April 1942 Sutton was posted to Air HQ Bengal, as a staff officer. He went to the Air Fighting Training Unit at Amarda Road in early 1943, as Chief Flying Instructor and was then posted to Command HQ Delhi as Chief Tactics Officer.
Sutton was appointed to lead a Spitfire Wing in Bengal in April 1944 and at the end of June he became Wing Leader of a Hurricane/Spitfire Wing in the Imphal Valley.
He returned to the UK in 1945 and was awarded the DFC. He spent time as Personal Air Secretary to the Secretary of State for Air, commanded the RAF stations at Aston Down, North Weald, Horsham St Faith (now Norwich Airport) and Bassingbourn. He retired from the RAF in April 1966 as a Group Captain and lived in a house at Rozel on Jersey’s north coast. He wrote volumes of memoirs. He died on 16 March 1988 and is buried in the churchyard extension at Trinity Church, Jersey. For a time his grave was untended and was disappearing beneath vegetation until an islander unofficially restored it.
