2nd Lieutenant David Scott ARNOTT (105751)
2/5th Battalion Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)

Date of birth: 12th April 1909
Date of death: 20th February 1944

Killed in action aged 34
Buried at Anzio War Cemetery Plot I Row G Grave 6
David Scott Arnott was born at Paddington in London on the 12th of April 1909 the elder son of Scott Arnott OL a solicitor, and Norah Elise (nee Nicolas) Arnott of "Tanners", Brasted in Kent.

He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1922 to July 1927. He was appointed as a House Captain in 1927.

In 1928 he went to work for Baring Bros Bank and he lived in Kent.

On the outbreak of war he enlisted in the army as a Private in the Gordon Highlanders and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the regiment on the 2nd of December 1939. He resigned his commission on the 11th of July 1941.

On the 19th of September 1943 he was commissioned again as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) and joined the 2/5th Battalion of his regiment in the field at Visciano on the 1st of February 1944, along with six other officer reinforcements.

On the 18th of February 1944 the 2/5th Battalion Queen's Royal Regiment landed at Anzio where the allies were attempting to out flank Axis forces having been fighting in Southern Italy for some time. The enemy had already counterattacked those forces which had landed earlier and had re-captured the town of Carroceto, some ten miles from the beachhead. On the night of the 19th/20th of February the battalion moved across rough country to occupy a position known as the "Lobster Claw", near a flyover some three miles from Carroceto where the next enemy attack was expected to fall. On the 20th of February David Arnott was one of seven casualties suffered by the battalion. Over the following week the battalion came under a series of attacks from the Germans and by the time they were relieved a week later they had suffered over one hundred casualties.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Brasted and on the memorial in St Martin's Church, Brasted.

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