Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born in Bowden on the 1st August 1908 to Henry Rowland and Jemima Richardson Scott, Rupert was the youngest of six children. His siblings included Henry Lawrence, Mona, Muriel, Jean, and Charles. The children attended the local Hindmarsh Public School, with Rupert then studying at Adelaide High. Throughout, he played football and in summer, cricket. Rupert also undertook extra study, passing Machining Grade II in 1926 and the following year, Compositing First Class. Unfortunately, riding home on Park Terrace, in June ’26, Rupert was caught riding his bicycle without a light and was fine quite hefty 10/- with 15/- cost.
Several of the brothers, including Rupert and brother Charles, were members of the Square Club and involved in the Balls and dances that were quite frequent at the time. Rupert worked in the Adelaide Printing Office as a Compositor organising type in printing, a labour-intensive and required a high degree of skill. Rupert was less fortunate to be fined in ’37 for having an unregistered dog, the canine causing an expensive fine of £1 with £1/2/6 cost.
He married Rosie Lillian with the two living in Brompton Park with their three children. Rupert was fortunate to survive serious injury on a trip from Mildura to Adelaide, when the large semi-trailer in which he was travelling, overturned, throwing seven occupants onto the roadway a mile out of Blanchetown in the early hours of March ’40. Rupert escaped with concussion and lacerations to his scalp and was taken to the Royal Adeliade Hospital.
Thre months later, 31 year old Rupert enlisted to serve in WWII on the 15th June 1940. He was allocated the number SX7183 and quite rapidly was promoted to the role of Acting Corporal in the newly formed 2/48th Battalion.
Following precious leave with his family, Rupert sailed on the Stratheden, arriving in the Middle East on the 17th December ’40. In less than a year, he was again promoted, this time to sergeant. He was to also become one of the famed Rat of Tobruk, a term designed to destroy morale and encourage the troops to surrender. It had the opposite effect as they dug into their sandy underground shelters which they shared with flies, rats and dust. These same conditions probably also contributed to Rupert developing an ear infection.
He and the much-depleted battalion eventually embarked from the Middle East at the commencement of February ’43 returning to Australia via Melbourne.
In Tobruk to Tarakan John Glenn explained that in the early months at Ravenshoe a general reshuffle occurred as new reinforcements arrived and older soldiers were hospitalised or graded as medically unfit for further jungle warfare. George Bonney was detatched to Warwick at Records, relieving Sergeant Rupert Scott. Rupert was moved back to the 2/48th as battalion headquarters orderly room sergeant.
As the war continued, Rupert felt the effects, taking two days of unofficial leave in June ’43, forfeiting two days’ pay and the following year accidentally scalded his foot and was also reprimanded for being drunk. He continued to serve, embarking for Morotai In April ’45, then Tarakan for the closing days of the war. In August he was finally able to return to Australia, disembarking in Sydney before finally returning to his family in South Australia. The conditions he had endured influenced his heart health causing him to spend time in hospital, where both tonsilitis and anaemia were also a legacy of the war.
He was finally discharged on the 2nd May ’47. It was a joyous occasion in January the following year when his eldest daughter Laline married in January. However, in a cruel blow to the family after the devastation of war, Rupert’s oldest brother, 53-year-old Henry died in Scotland in August that year.
Aged 67, Rupert died on the 5th September ’75 and was buried in West Terrace Cemetery, Road 5, Path 13 West, Site 28.
Researched and written by Kaye Lee, daughter of Bryan Holmes, SX8133, 2/48th Battalion.