2nd Lieutenant John Hastings Folliott SCOTT
3rd (Reserve) Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry attached to B Company, 5th (Service) Battalion

Date of birth: 10th February 1895
Date of death: 9th April 1917

Killed in action aged 22
Buried at Tilloy British Cemetery Plot IV Row D Grave 24
John Hastings Folliott Scott was born at Arlesey Vicarage in Bedfordshire on the 10th of February 1895 one of twin sons of the Reverend Richard Curtis Folliott Scott, Rector of Hulcote and Chaplain to the Bedfordshire Yeomanry, and Edith Marion (nee Wilson) Scott of Hulcote Rectory, Woburn Sands in Bedfordshire.

He was educated at the Knoll School, Woburn Sands and at Lancing College where he was in News House from May 1908 and in Fields House from September 1912 until July 1913. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps from September 1909 until he left the College. On leaving school he went to Ceylon to engage in tea planting.

He enlisted as a Rifleman in the Ceylon Planters Rife Corps in November 1913 but resigned in April 1915 when he returned home to accept a commission. He applied for a commission in the Special Reserve of Officer for the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on the 29th of June 1915 in an application which was supported by the Reverend Bowlby, Headmaster of Lancing College. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the battalion on the 14th of July 1915 and was posted to the School of Instruction at Plymouth Garrison on the 29th of July 1915.

He embarked for France on the 8th of September 1916 where he joined the 5th Battalion of his regiment in the field at Meaulte on the 12th of September where he was attached to B Company.

The 9th of April 1917 was the opening day of the Battle of Arras and the 5th Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry was detailed to attack German positions at Telegraph Redoubt to the south east of Arras. Following an artillery barrage the battalion moved forward at 7.30am but soon bunched up and became mixed with the battalion on their right, the 5th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry who had moved forward before waiting for the barrage to lift. In the event the artillery had severely damaged the enemy wire and this allowed the Oxfordshire men to capture and consolidate their objectives, having knocked out three machinegun positions, and capture around one hundred and fifty of the enemy. At 11am the men were relieved and returned to their dugouts to rest.

Casualties for the attack were five officers and forty five other ranks killed with eight officers and one hundred and sixteen other ranks wounded with eleven other ranks missing. John Scott was among the dead and his father received the following telegram dated the 16th of April 1917: -

"Deeply regret to inform you 2/Lieut. J.H.F. Scott Ox and Bucks Light Infantry was killed in action April ninth. The Army Council express their sympathy."

His elder brother Lieutenant Richard Thomas Folliott Scott OL of the 1st Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment was killed in action on the 16th of March 1915.

He is commemorated on the Hulcote and Salford Village Memorial and on the Knoll School Cross at Apsley Heath.

Back