HERO OF THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 154, 25 March 1922, Page 3

HERO OF THE AIR

THE LATE “JACK SCOTT” A FINE CAREER ENDED Tho subject of tho following appreciative memoir by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Birkenhead, which appeared in the London “Times” of January 7, was Croup-Captain Alan John Lanoo Scott, C. 8., M.C., A.F.C., Secretary to tho Secretary of State for Air. Carjain Scott (states the CRiTstchurch “Press”}was born in Christchurch, the son of the late Mr. Henry Alan Scott and Mrs. Scott, who were prominent residents of Christchurch for a number of years up to some thirty years ago.

A very large group of devoted friends will learn with deep sense of personal bereavement of the untimely death of the young officer who, since his Oxford days, has been universally known as Jack Scott. A fortnight ago he took the first holiday which he had allowed himself for fifteen months. Be went with a number of friends to St. Moritz. Until tho end of his visit he appeared to be in all his usual robust strength. A day /or two before he left he was seized with a cold of an ordinary kind, causing no anxiety. He stayed on the way home for a day or two ,in Paris, where the cold developed with a slight but not serious bronchial menace. A little unwisely, but taking a risk which many strong knen have often taken without untoward consequence, he decided to cross to England./ His condition on tho voyage became worse. On his arrival the case was diagnosed as one of double pneumonia, and in four days he was dead. The name of this distinguished officer was almost, if not quite, unknown to the general public, and yet there was in the English Array no more arresting and remarkable figure. I first met him fifteen years ago when he was an undergraduate at Merton College and Master of the University Draghounds. I never saw anyone, in my long experience of the hunting field, ride with n resolution and fearlessness so complete. He stamped himself even then upon my .mind as one who had no concept’on whatever of the meaning or pressure of fear. Acquaintance ripened rapidly into friendship, and fuller knowledge of his practice in the hunting field confirmed my clear conviction that he was the bravest man I ever saw riding to hounds.

He intended tg go to the Bar, and in due course became a pupil in mv chambers. Ho showed great industry and ability without any special promise of that uudefinable combination of qualities which !s tho soil of great forensic success. His career and his greatness were to lie in a very different field.

In August 1914. ho was a junior officer in the Sussex Yeomanry, consumed, as many young officers at that moment detained in England were, with a burning dasire to undertake active service ft the earliest moment, lie had never in his life ( been in an aeroplane; he was over 30 years old: hut the air. and the pro«nect of air fighting, made an irresistible appeal to his adventurous nature. Quite early in the war he jojticd the R.A.F., and thereafter commenced an Odvssev of hazard, adventure, and terrible accidents which can hardly have been exceeded in the annals of the air. n one occasion befor- went to France hi» machine collapsed when he was 2000 feet in the air. During the terrib’o fall that followed be was working and trs’ing and touting. and wh»n 0(1 f~ct fvn’” the m-onnd he regained a degree of control which saverl his life bn* loft him permanently n cripple. He lay fcr manv months m hospital, during which the doctors could "ive no assurance that be won r ever leave his' bed. An stron" constitution asserted itself, and | IP was found laler working on the R.A.F. staff at De Kyser L Hotel. On Active Setvioo. As soon as he became strong enotifdr to walk unaided he h'gan again tn strain everv influence he possessed to obtain leave to go on active service in France. “lb fight m an aerohe said, “is the one thing •j lime man could do ns well »s mother.” His own doctor, told me. that ho was quite unfit to go and without daring to inform Jack Scott of what 1 waßfdoing 1 went to General Henderson imd placed the medical report before him. For the moment 1 succeeded, but a month later lie came round to oui house, the embodnnent or gaiety, and told us hn was under orders lo proceed to France tP take command ol a squadron in the iollowing week. It is not an exaggeration to say that in a service manned by heroes he was universally admitted within 'three months to be one of the most brilliant and daring. Major Bishop, 'V.C., was under his command in the squadron, and he himself told me at a later period that for cool and unshakable courage he never in his ffxperieneo met Scott’s equal. Readers of Bishop’s book will remember the part placed by the “Major” in one of its most thrilling episodes. The “Major” was Jack Scott. He had accident aiter accident, and escape after escape, and those who knew him began to say that he bore a charmed life. And he continued to fight in the air until Armistice Day, commanding the COth Squadron and habitually violating the rule which, in the later stages of the struggle, forbade the commanding officers of squadrons to engage personally in air combat. When ’wsilively forbidden to engage he positively refused to obey, saying, “I ipll not send boys to fight unless I go with them. Lower my rank if you like, and then I can fight.” Ho met with accident after accident, until hardly a part of his body was quite unscathed, but it seemed as if no risk, or combination of risks, could destroy so tenacious a life or daunt a spirit so buoyant. In 1920 he wrote tho history of tho squadron in soldierly and unpretentious fashion, but not without considerable literary skill. When the. war ended he was offered a permanent commission in the Air Force, which had learnt to recognise that ho was not only a dashing fighter, but that he possessed in addition unusual qualities of mind and of organisiiig capacity. Shortly aftoi’waids no was appointed Air Secretary to Mr. Winston Churchill, who was at that time Secretary of State both for the War Office and fortthe Air Force. He retained this position under Captain Guest, and held it at the time of his (Jeath. There can be uo doubt that he would have risen to the highest position in hie profession, and I may, perhaps, be bold enough, now that he is dead, to say that the present Secretary of State for Air told ma quite recently that he thought him an officer very likely to become one day Chief of the Air Staff. „ ... And quite suddenly all this promise is extinguished as the result of a neglected ailment, and he who for so long with dauntless eyes faced and challenged death, has fallen on the assault of disease before an inscrutable decree. None who knew him will ever forget his striking personality. His finely-shaped head gave certain

promise of indomitable resolution. . Indeed, its ruthless power was qualified only by its latent humour and its delightful and attractive simplicity. I know of no character in history or fiction of whom he more constantly reminded me than of “Valiant,in “Pilgrim’s Progress/’ walking into the dark river. And like Valiant, he, too, during four years of cool and inextinguishable daring, might have asked, and with the same contempt, O Death, where is thy sting? 0 Grave, where is thv victory?” Of the affections of his life and of his friendships, though both are well known to me, 1 do mot at this moment speak, but a more constant heart never beat for those whom he loved, nor a more valinnt one’for England. May his brave spirit rest in peace!