William Henry Scott was born April 3, 1867 in Southampton and was the second oldest son of Dr. William Sumner Scott and Catherine Ann. Dr. Scott, who came to Southampton in 1855 and died in 1900, was the town’s only physician at the time.
By 1891, William Henry Scott had graduated as a Medical Doctor and, like his father, practiced medicine in Southampton prior to his enlistment on October 1, 1915 in the Canadian Army Medical Corps at Shorncliffe in Toronto. He sailed overseas on October 10th arriving in England on October 18th.
Scott then proceeded to #1 General Hospital in Etaples France and, while in France, he served with distinction and received “Mention in Dispatches” for “Distinguished Service and Devotion to Duty”. He was working in a medical aid dressing station in a cellar when it was filled with Mustard gas and the whole staff was gassed. He remained after all the assistants had evacuated and attended to three men.
For his valour he received the Canadian Military Cross for “Gallant and Distinguished Service in Action”.
See London Gazette January 2, 1917.
Near war’s end, he received a 14-day pass and went to Antibes near Nice France.
He returned to, and remained in France until all the wounded had been evacuated back to England, leaving France on March 26, 1919. He sailed from England on S. S. Olympic on April 14, 1919 receiving his discharge on May 16, 1919.
Interestingly, after arriving back in Canada, he went to Carrot Creek Alberta on the Yellowhead Highway between Edmonton and Jasper and practiced medicine in Alberta until his death in Edmonton on January 25, 1930 at age 62.
He had remained single throughout his life.
