S2943
SCOTT, James Richard
| Service Number: | 798 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 29 February 1916, at Adelaide |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 43rd Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Meningie, South Australia, 30 April 1883 |
| Home Town: | Meningie, The Coorong, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 12 July 1923, aged 40 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
West Terrace Cemetery (AIF Section) Section: LO, Road: 5S, Site No: 11 |
| Memorials: | Meningie War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 29 Feb 1916: | Enlisted AIF WW1, Private, 798, 43rd Infantry Battalion, at Adelaide | |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Jun 1916: | Involvement Private, 798, 43rd Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '18' embarkation_place: Adelaide embarkation_ship: HMAT Afric embarkation_ship_number: A19 public_note: '' | |
| 9 Jun 1916: | Embarked Private, 798, 43rd Infantry Battalion, HMAT Afric, Adelaide | |
| 7 Jun 1917: | Wounded AIF WW1, Private, 798, 43rd Infantry Battalion, Battle of Messines, GSW Side and Chest. | |
| 20 Feb 1918: | Discharged AIF WW1, Private, 798, 43rd Infantry Battalion |
Help us honour James Richard Scott's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by St Ignatius' College
James Richard Scott was born in Meningie, South Australia on 30 April 1883 and followed the Methodist religion. Before the war, he worked as a labourer and didn’t have any previous military service. Scott was below average height for the time standing at 5’ 6.5” tall, 1.5 inches under the average for time which was 5’ 8”. He weighed 61 kilograms when he enlisted and had brown eyes and hair. Scott’s mother, Mrs Sarah Scott, was his next of kin and most likely lived with him. There is no record to indicate whether Scott’s father lived with him or what his occupation was.
Scott enlisted for the war on the 29th of February 1916 after being assessed as medically fit as a private in the 2nd battalion at the age of 32. A week later he transferred to the 43rd battalion before departure overseas in June 1916. Scott travelled overseas to Egypt for preliminary training onboard the HMAT Afric before proceeding to England for more rigorous training in Lark Hill along with the 41st, 42nd,43rd and 44th battalions. Scott travelled to the western front in war-torn France with the 43rd battalion on the 25th of November 1916. The battalion spent the first half of 1917 engaged in bloody trench warfare in Flanders, the western region of Belgium, before engaging in a seven-day long battle in the town of Messines.
Disaster struck Scott on the first day of the battle of Messines, on the 7th of June 1917. Shrapnel or bullets struck Scott in his side and his chest. This would eventually decommission him from the rest of the battle and the rest of the war. Luckily, Scott survived the injury and didn’t die during the battle. He arrived in England on board the HS Jan Breydel a week later (14th of June 1917) for an extended period of hospitalisation due to his critical injury. This shows that the injury was serious as Scott would have received basic medical attention on the western front but the urgent need for hospitalisation in England indicates that the injury put him in a critical condition. After arriving in England, Scott was medically examined in London before arriving at a hospital in Norwich on the same day. There are no accessible medical records about his injury or his five-month-long hospitalisation period, but he was assessed as being unfit for active duty at the end of the hospitalisation period due to heart related deficiency.
Scott left England on the 1st of November 1917 and was discharged from the AIF on the 20th of February 1918. Scott got discharged due to being medically unfit (not due to misconduct) as a result of his injury. He served for 1 year and 357 days with 1 year and 205 of those days abroad.
20 days after Scott’s discharge he received a pension of 3 pounds a fortnight. This is estimated to be around $270 Australian per fortnight today (with conversion and inflation). This shows that Scott’s injury was so severe that he was unable to work again due to the pension being granted. As well as the pension, Scott received the British war medal and the Victory medal for his service at the end of the war. Scott sadly died 5 years after being discharged on the 12th of July 1923 at Myrtle Bank in Unley, South Australia from unknown causes. It is unknown what he did in between his discharge and death, but he wouldn’t have been able to do much due to his injury and his inability to work. It can be assumed that James Richard Scott died as a result of his injury and his grave is located in the West Terrace Cemetery in South Australia.
Sources:
HMAT A19 Afric - Our Contribution 2018, Birtwistlewiki.com.au, viewed 3 March 2021, <https://birtwistlewiki.com.au/wiki/HMAT_A19_Afric>.
43rd Australian Infantry Battalion 2016, Awm.gov.au, viewed 3 March 2021, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/U51483>.
Details 2016, Adfa.edu.au, viewed 11 March 2021, <https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=268980>.
Item details 2021, Naa.gov.au, viewed 11 March 2021, <https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=3003160&isAv=N>.
Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War 2016, Awm.gov.au, viewed 11 March 2021, <https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/AWM4>.
Advanced Search | Australian War Memorial 2016, Awm.gov.au, viewed 11 March 2021, <https://www.awm.gov.au/advanced-search>.
James Richard SCOTT 2021, Vwma.org.au, viewed 11 March 2021, <https://vwma.org.au/explore/people/315675>.
Trove 2021, Nla.gov.au, Trove, viewed 11 March 2021, <https://trove.nla.gov.au/?q&adv=y>.
Click images to start slideshow.