In the Flatiron Copse Cemetery, France is the Commonwealth War Grave of 33656 Gunner Andrew Scott serving with ‘A’ Battery 70th Brigade Royal Field Artillery who died 08/08/1916.
The son of Thomas and Janet Scott and the husband of Dorothy Scott, 116, Whitley Road, Whitley Bay, Northumberland. He was born at Backworth, Northumberland.
Derek Johnstone has provided the following with input from Thomas Scott, a grandson of Andrew Scott.
Andrew Scott was born at Backworth, Northumberland in 1885 to parents Thomas Scott from Lowick, Northumberland, and Janet Scott (nee Morton) from Ladykirk, Berwickshire. In 1901, when Andrew was 16 years old, he was working in the coal mines as a coal putter and living at 11, Duchess Street, Earsdon, Shiremoor, Northumberland. Siblings in the house at this time were Adam 22, Margaret 17 and Robert 13.
Andrew married Dorothy Snowden from Blue Barns, Durham in 1908 which was registered at Tynemouth.
The 1911 Census took place when Andrew was 26 years old and living in his fathers house at 26, Melrose Avenue, Backworth where there were five people living in 4 rooms. His father at this time was a check weighman on working on the surface and Andrew was employed as a hewer in the Backworth Colliery. Their only child, Morton Scott, was one year old.
Military records show that Andrew enlisted in September 1914 at Whitley Bay. The Service Records also state that Andrew was 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighed 11 stone, had grey eyes and brown hair. Andrew volunteered for the Army within a month of war being declared in August 1914. During the Battle of the Somme his gun battery was brought nearer to the front lines. On the 8th August 1916, after a period of prolonged firing, a shell exploded in the breech of his gun killing him and all of his gun crew.
On his death his effects went to his widow Dorothy in three installments and his Pension Index Card lists his wife and children Morton, William and Thomas. Andrew’s Service Records have survived and show that in 1922 his wife Dorothy Scott was living at 116, Whitley Road, Whitley Bay. His wife never remarried and in 1939 was living at 5, Priory Avenue, Whitley Bay. She brought up three sons and a daughter and rarely talked of Andrew.
After the war there were trips to the war graves in France, organised for war widows, but neither she nor any of her children ever visited Flatiron Copse Cemetery.
Andrew Scott is remembered at Backworth in B1.03, page 1, at Shiremoor on S21.01, and in Whitley Bay on W84.01.
