PRIVATE ANDREW BLAKE SCOTT
MACHINE GUN CORPS
20TH NOVEMBER 1916 AGE 19
BURIED: GUARDS' CEMETERY LESBOEUFS, FRANCE
"Our next gun got five men killed by one shell. Gillingham, Clayden, Scott, Little and Brown, all good lads and had been with us since we left Suez."
20 November 1916
From the diary of Corporal Angus Mackay, 'Somewhere in Blood Soaked France'.
Mackay and Scott served in the 88th Machine Gun Company, formed in Suez on the 21 February 1916. The Company embarked for France on 10 March and took part in the Battle of the Somme. By November 1916 they were involved in work to shore up and repair the line in an attempt to make it habitable for the coming winter. Entries in Mackay's diary in the week before Scott's death give an indication of their mood and the conditions.
17 November
Had a struggle with rations over shell holes and barbed wire in the dark, then got washed out of our dugout when we got back. Very funny to read about but I am damn well fed up.
18 November
Got a fire going and got our breakfast after some cursing all round. Rain snow and frost mixed up rather unpleasant. Hear we go up the line in a couple of days. ... Mud up to the neck. This country is not worth fighting for.
Andrew Scott's parents chose his inscription. It comes from the last verse of Byron's 'Thy Days are Done', which he wrote in 1815 in praise of a soldier killed fighting for his country's freedom. This is the first verse:
Thy days are done, thy fame begun;
Thy country's strains record
The triumphs of her chosen son,
The slaughters of his sword!
The deeds he did, the fields he won,
The freedom he restored!
And these are the last two lines:
To weep will do thy glory wrong:
Thou shalt not be deplored.