Sergeant Llewellyn Scott, 13/1481, East Yorkshire Regiment, 11th Battalion
Llewellyn Scott was born in Ossett in Summer 1889, the fourth of eleven children born to Abraham Scott and his wife Annie (nee Storey) who were married in early 1883.
It has not been possible to locate Llewellyn or his family in 1891, but by 1893 the family had moved to Hull and in 1901 they were living there on Wilde Street. Llewellyn’s mother, Annie, died in late 1910, leaving Abraham a widower with nine children living at home in Sculcoates. Four children were under the age of eight years. Abraham was a lighterman, (barge operator), and Llewellyn, aged 21, was working as a boiler scaler in a local mill. Llewellyn married Emily Fuller in Summer 1914 in the Sculcoates area. A child, Emily Scott, was born to the couple in late 1915.
Llewellyn Scott’s army service record has not survived, but it is known that he enlisted at Hull and joined the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment with service number 13/1481. Llewellyn had achieved the rank of Sergeant before he died of his wounds on the 29th March 1918. He was 33 years of age and was posthumously awarded the British and Victory medals, but not the 1914/15 star indicating that he did not serve overseas before 31st December 1915.
The 11th Battalion, The East Yorkshire Regiment was known as the "Hull Tradesmen" and was raised in Hull on the 2nd of September 1914 by Lord Nunburnholme and the East Riding T.F. Association. In May 1915, the Battalion joined the 92nd Brigade, 31st Division, moving to Penkridge Bank Camp near Rugeley, then later to South Camp, Ripon and Hurdcott Camp near Salisbury.
In December 1915 they set sail for Alexandria in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal. In March 1916 The 31st Division left Port Said aboard "HMT Briton" bound for Marseilles in France, a journey which took five days. They travelled by train to Pont Remy, a few miles south east of Abbeville and marched to Bertrancourt arriving on the 29th March 1916.
Not long after arriving on the Western Front they took over a stretch of the front line opposite the village of Serre at the northern most end of The Somme, suffering very heavy casualties as the battle was launched. In 1917 they were in action in the Battle of Arras and in 1918 they fought at St. Quentin, Bapaume and Arras before moving north to counter the German Spring Offensive on the Lys. Towards the end of the conflict they were in action in the the Final Advance in Flanders.
Sergeant Llewellyn Scott was seriously injured and later died of his wounds at a casualty clearing station on the 29th March 1918 during the opening phase of the German Spring Offensive "Operation Michael" at the Battle of St. Quintin, which began on the 21st March 1918.
"The Thirty-first Division, the well-tried Yorkshire unit, still retained two of its old brigades, but had an additional 4th Brigade of Guards, cut from the old Guards Division by the new system of smaller units. General Bridgford had taken over command just before the battle and would be the first to admit that the splendid efficiency of his troops was due to General Wanless O'Gowan, who had been associated with them so long. They carried a high reputation into this great battle and an even higher one out of it.
On the morning of March 23rd the division faced the Germans to the north of Mory Copse, having the 4th Guards Brigade upon the right and the 93rd Brigade upon the left. Two German divisions which had already been engaged, the 111th and the 2nd Guards Reserve, tried to break this fresh line and were each in turn broken themselves, as were the German batteries which pushed to the front and found themselves under the double fire of the Thirty-first and Thirty-fourth divisional artillery. Prisoners taken in this repulse gave the information that the Germans were already a full day behind their scheduled programme in this quarter.
All attacks upon the Thirty-first met with the same fate during the day, but the enemy, as will be shown, had got a grip of Mory for a time, and pushed back the Fortieth in the south. Instead of a retirement, the 92nd Brigade was brought from reserve and placed upon the exposed flank, while the Guards and Yorkshiremen still stood firm. In the evening the general line extended from north of Ervillers, where the 92nd Brigade was on watch, to the region of Hamelincourt, where the 93rd had their line."
Above: Map showing the British lines in retreat during Operation Michael in the Spring of 1918.
In Summer 1920, Llewellyn’s widow, Emily, married William J. Andrews and they lived at Hessle Avenue, Dansom Lane, Hull.
Llewellyn Scott was not remembered on any Ossett Memorial or Roll of Honour probably because he and his family had left Ossett in the early 1890s. He is remembered in this 2014 biography and Roll of Honour because the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and/or the "U.K. Soldiers who Died in the Great War 1914-1918" listing records him as born or residing in Ossett.
Sergeant Llewellyn Scott, son of Abraham Scott and husband of Emily Andrews (formerly Scott), of 3, Hessle Avenue, Dansom Lane, Hull, died aged 33 years, on the 29th March 1918 and is buried at grave reference II. D. 6.at the Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval,2 Pas de Calais, France. Bailleulval is a village in the Department of the Pas-de-Calais about 13 Kms south-west of Arras, and the Cemetery is 1 km west of the village on the north side of the main road from Arras to Doullens (N25).
The cemetery was made in March 1918 by the 7th, 20th and 43rd Casualty Clearing Stations, but when the German advance began at the end of that month, their place was taken by field ambulances of the units fighting on the Arras front, notably the 31st Division and the Canadian Corps. In August and September, when the Germans had been pushed back, the 45th and 46th Casualty Clearing Stations were posted to the neighbourhood.
Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery contains 688 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. There are also 55 German war graves.
References:
1. "A History of the Great War - The British Campaign in France and Flanders - Vol. 5 - January to July 1918" by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1919.