Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

 
John Scutt (affectionately known as, and referred to as Jack) joined the AIF to serve his country and do his bit for the war. Initially he was needed as a farmer in the first few years of the war, but in 1916 at the age of 27 he enlisted. Some of his friends also enlisted, and also a cousin, Percy Scutt (who died in the war). There was a real desire to defeat the Huns (Germans) and this was expressed in the letters he wrote home.

Because Jack was tall (6 feet 2 inches) and strong, he was assigned as a gunner. His official role title was Australian Heavy Trench Mortar Battery Gunner. He fought in the trenches in France and Belgium; it was at Bizet in Belgium where he was captured by the Germans on 10th April 1918 and was held as a prisoner of war in the camp at Doberitz, outside of Berlin, until Armistice.
 
John experienced hardships during the war such as shelling, knee-high mud in the trenches, witnessing deaths of friends and other soldiers, surviving gas attacks, food deprivation and being a POW. In his letters home he mentions some ‘near misses’  including one account where he went outside and stood in an area near the cook’s house and then had a strong feeling to come back inside. Less than a minute later a shell went off exactly where he had been standing, so he realised how lucky he was.
 
His letters from the German prison camp had to be very general in nature as they were heavily censored and many letters never specified exactly where he was, saying ‘somewhere in France’ or simply ‘Belgium’ – this was so that the enemy would not know their location. In the Doberitz POW camp in Germany (nicknamed ‘Hungry Hill’) prisoners were apparently allowed Red Cross packages and care parcels from home at that camp. Hungry Hill was an appropriate name because the soldiers lost lots of weight in a short period of time. Jack lost a lot of weight as a POW and this was probably the main reason he had failing health after the war until his death almost 20 years later. The soldiers were hungry and bored, but they were permitted correspondence from home. However German censors read all incoming and outgoing mail. Reading letters after his release gives more of his thoughts about being a POW as they were no longer censored.
 
In amongst the fighting there were some happier times, such as playing cricket and sport with soldiers from NZ and England. He often talked about the weather, or asked how the farm was going back home, and also wrote about when he was on leave and the various places he visited.
 
As he was caught in Belgium it is possible that he fought in Ypres and possibly the Somme in France but there is no mention of these battles in his letters as he wasn’t allowed to divulge his location. There is one letter where he talks about the various nicknames they had for different bombs/shells. It must have been a terrible moment when his parents received the telegram that declared he was missing, and this would have been followed weeks later by the devestating telegram saying that he had been captured by the Germans and was a POW.
 
Jack had many close encounters in the war in terms of losing his life but considered himself very lucky, always sensing that he would make it through and survive the war and return home. His daughter, Joan did remembers hearing stories that Jack was very well-liked by other soldiers and was considered an ‘excellent chap’. His letters reveal that he was a real family man, coming from a big family – he had 3 other brothers and 6 sisters. His letters have many terms of endearment which show how close he was to his family and how he longed to come back home.

After the war, Jack went back to London for a few months and was offered the opportunity to travel to South Africa with a great friend called Billy Arnold to seek fortune. However Jack declined, wanting to return back home. Once back in Australia, he worked in various jobs in Sydney. His mother won a block of land in the Monaro district of Cooma and Jack went down to this land and grazed sheep there for some years. He also was a sheep farmer in the Narrabri and Barraba districts and was well respected in the community. He met his wife, Madge in Sydney and when they married in early 1933 they moved to the sheep farm near Narrabri and had one child, Joan. 
 
Jack died on 3rd March 1937 from heart disease in the Scottish Hospital in Paddington, Sydney. He was a farmer before he entered the war and was a strong man, but the turmoil of war such as gassing and shelling faced on the Western front, the rain and mud of the trenches, food deprivation as a POW led to failing health which over the years took its toll, leading to his death when he was only 48 years old (his heart was obviously weakened from his war experiences). At the age of 44 he married Madge Acheson who was 29, after meeting her in Sydney. They had one child, Joan Scutt who was only 4 years old when her father passed away. Joan has fond memories of Jack remembering him as a loving father who laughed a lot and played the violin. Joan was raised by Jack’s sister Decima and her husband Tom who could never have children and raised Joan as if she was their own child. Jack's obituary says that he had a military funeral in the Church of England which was his religion. There is a comment that he had a ‘happy disposition’.