2nd Lieutenant, 2nd Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers
Killed in action on Friday 23rd April 1915, near Ypres, age 19
Buried at Bedford House Cemetery, enclosure No. 4, grave ref IV.H.5
Former student of Commerce.
Norman was one of three sons of Dr William Sawers Scott, a G.P. From Withington, and his wife Margaret. Educated at Manchester Grammar School Norman entered the University of Manchester in 1911 and graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1914 . Most of his spare time whilst at university was spent with the Officer Training Corps (O.T.C.) where he gained the Recruits’ Prize, Major Thorburn’s Cup for general efficiency, his ‘A’ and ‘B’ certificates for shooting, was secretary of the Shooting Club and a member of the Shooting Eight.
In June 1913 he was gazetted to the special reserve and attached to the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. When the University acquired the right to nominate graduates for commissions in the Regular Army they put forward Norman as their first candidate. He took part in the attack on Hill 60 near Ypres and was killed on St. Georges’s Day 1915 when the enemy made a counter attack. A sergeant A.H. Davies of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers to whom he had been attached for a few months wrote: “Please pardon a stranger at such a time, but on behalf of the N.C.O.’s and men of his old platoon, allow me to express our heartfelt sympathy with you and Mrs. Scott in your great loss. I worked with Mr. Scott for several months and could not wish for a better officer, well up in his work,and cool under fire, fair-minded to his men and always a gentleman. Your loss is also ours, and I sincerely trust that time will deaden your grief for one who breavely died fighting for his country.” Manchester Grammar School described him as “a most promising young officer, who would doubtless have made his mark had he been spared”.
During a concentration of graves that took place in 1921 the Commonwealth War Graves appear to have been able to identify him through an engraved matchbox that was with his remains.
His younger brother, Ian Archibald, served in the same regiment and was killed on 1st July 1916. Ian had been a member of his school O.T.C. and attended several camps of the University of Manchester O.T.C. Their father gained a B.Sc. at the University in 1904, was a Captain in the R.A.M.C. and survived the war.