Scott, David Harden (Harden)
Military Cross
Lieutenant
65th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps
Killed in action on Monday 12 November 1917 (aged 21)
Buried:
Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery, France (Grave IV. G. 7)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Bangor Masonic Lodge No. 746
First Bangor Presbyterian Church
Bangor Grammar School
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) War Memorial
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) Book of Remembrance
Queen’s University Officers’ Training Corps Memorial Plaque
Magheradroll Parish Church of Ireland Church, Ballynahinch
Family Grave Headstone in Magheradroll Parish Church of Ireland Graveyard
First Ballynahinch Presbyterian Church
BIOGRAPHY
David Harden Scott was born on 24 November 1895 in Abbey Street, Bangor and he was a son of Matthew and Elizabeth Craig Scott (nee Lemon) who were married on 17 October 1894 in St John’s Church of Ireland Church, Laganbank in Belfast. Matthew Scott from Bangor was a son of Thomas Scott, a shepherd. Elizabeth Craig Lemon from Belfast was a daughter of John Lemon, a carpenter.
Matthew Scott was the railway station-master in Bangor and he and Elizabeth had four children:
David Harden (born 24 November 1895 in Abbey Street, Bangor)
Margaret Anna Victoria Harden (Queenie, born 21 May 1897 in Station Villa, Bangor)
Henry George Cecil (born 26 October 1899 in Abbey Street, Bangor)
James Norman Harden (Jim, born 4 February 1902 in Railway Station, Bangor)
Queenie Scott was baptised in Bangor Parish Church of Ireland Church (St Comgall’s).
The Scott family lived in Abbey Street and later at 11 Dufferin Avenue, Bangor.
At the time of Harden’s death, the Scott family was living at 43 Railway Street, Ballynahinch where Matthew Scott was the station-master.
Harden Scott presented a gold medal to Ballynahinch Boy Scout Troop to be used as a competition trophy.
David Harden Scott was educated at Bangor Grammar School and on 8 September 1914 he joined the Queen’s University Contingent of the Officers’ Training Corps. Prior to the outbreak of the Great War he was employed by the County Down Weaving Co Ltd which he entered from the Trade Preparatory School of the Municipal Technical Institute.
Harden Scott joined the Army in October 1914 and shortly afterwards received his commission in the 16th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (County Down Pioneers). For a time he served with the Army Cyclist Corps before being transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. Lieutenant Scott was awarded the Military Cross on 28 August 1916 and the official notification of the award stated that, along with Second Lieutenant Herbert H. Turk as pilot, he attacked seven hostile machines flying in formation and brought down one as a wreck. When turning to engage another machine the rudder controls were shot away and his machine went into a spinning nose-dive. After falling 5,000 feet the pilot partially regained control and, although the machine kept on turning, he managed to land safely. Lieutenant Scott was injured and required a lengthy period of convalescence; Second Lieutenant Turk was subsequently killed in action on 3 November 1916.
Lieutenant Scott received his Military Cross from the King on 29 August 1917 and on 27 October 1917 he returned to France as a scout pilot. Two weeks later, on 12 November 1917, he was killed in action whilst on patrol over the German lines. His Sopwith F.1 Camel aircraft (B2417) was brought down by a direct hit from an enemy anti-aircraft gun. Major Cunningham described it as ‘cruel luck for it is only once in many thousand or even million times that a direct hit is obtained’. Memorial services were held in four Ballynahinch churches – Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, Congregational and Methodist.
Lieutenant David Harden Scott was 21 when he died and he was buried in Pont-du-Hem Military Cemetery, France. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART
FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD
FATHER, MOTHER, QUEENIE, CECIL AND JIM
Lieutenant David Harden Scott is commemorated in Bangor Masonic Lodge No. 746 and as J.H. Scott in both First Bangor Presbyterian Church and Bangor Grammar School. He is also commemorated on the QUB War Memorial and in the QUB Book of Remembrance (Page 48).