2nd.LIEUT. HENRY ARTHUR SCOTT

[HERITAGE PLUS]

Any info. about this Officer and his unit would be much appreciated.

CWGC details are:

HENRY ARTHUR SCOTT

Second Lieutenant

512th Field Coy, Royal Engineers

died Sun 8 Apil 1917

Son of Amelia Tanswell Scott of Amison Houes, East Molesey, Surrey and the late Frederick Scott.

Agny Mil.Cem G46

[clintmann]

Re. Henry Arthur Scott. I've just read your message and may have a link. I've just purchased Alan Macdonald's book "Pro Patria Mori - The 56th (1st London) Division at Gommercourt, 1st July, 1916". Lt. H.A.Scott is mentioned in this three times on pages 89, 95 and 425. He had been in No Man's Land on 25th May 1916, surveying areas where trenches were to be dug, prior to the "big push" on 1st July. On 26th May he was investigating old rifle pits to see if they could be joined up and converted into a new communication trench (Yellow Street) to save men hours of digging. He iusn't mentioned aagain in the book but must have survived the terrible events at Gommercourt in July.

My interest stems from my research into 2nd Corporal Herbert Stanley Day, who was also in the 512th Field Coy of the RE. He died in May 1918 and is buried at Blargies. You can find more relating to him in the "Where is Abancourt?" post elsewhere in this forum. I am trying to reconstruct his history - his Army Service records did not survive. Have you tried the National Archives for Lt. H.A.Scott? Do you have any sources to track down War Diaries (etc) for the 512th Field Coy? I think they were attached to the 58th Division prior to 1916 and then switched to the 56th Division in February of that year.

Hope this is of interest. Let me know if I can give any more info. and if you or any readers have any further background on how we can find more out about the 512th Field Coy.

Clint

[Coldstreamer]

soldiers died shows KIA and in the supp notes says territorial

[PPCLI]

Hope this is of interest. Let me know if I can give any more info. and if you or any readers have any further background on how we can find more out about the 512th Field Coy.

Hi Clint,

Welcome to the forum.

The war diary for 512th Field Coy. RE is held at the National Archives and is indexed under WO 95/2942. It covers the period February 1916 to April 1919. Although some of the more popular war diaries are available online (payment required), most are not available and so the options are: pay the NA a lot of money to copy the diary for you; pay a researcher (considerably less money); or visit in person.

If at all possible, the latter would be my recommendation.

Best of luck with your research,

Stuart