Private Bertram Scott

Private Bertram Alexander Scott, 1st/9th ( Highland ) Battalion, Royal Scots. He died of tuberculosis, aged 24, in the Royal Victoria, Hospital, Edinburgh on the 7th May 1920. He had been born in Lancashire in 1895 and was the son of the late David Scott who was a retired Architect and had practised in Manchester for many years and had retired to Selkirk with his wife Mary. In 1911 he was living with his parents in 6 Ashybank Terrace, Selkirk and was employed as a clerk in a woollen mill in Selkirk. He enlisted in January 1915 and went with his Battalion to France in February 1915 where he became ill and was evacuated home. He was discharged from the Army in May 1916 and took up employment as a tweed cloth designer living with his mother and sister at 40 Raeburn Place, Selkirk. ( His father had died in 1912). After the War a very impressive Memorial was raised to commemorate the 51st ( Highland ) Division of which the Battalion was part. It was erected in Newfoundland Park on the Somme overlooking “Y” Ravine where on the 13th November 1916 the Division had stormed and capture the strong German positions in Beaumont Hamel. A plaque reads in both English and Gaelic ” Friends Are Good On The day Of Battle”.