Percy Scott - Early Years

Early Years

Scott was educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy, Southsea, and entered the navy as a cadet in 1866, at the age of thirteen, and in 1868 received a post on HMS Forte, a 50-gun frigate. He served in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War and was based at Cape Coast Castle. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1875.

In 1878 he attended a course at HMS Excellent to qualify as a gunnery lieutenant. It was during this period that, having created a serviceable running track on Whale Island (which had been largely created when dumping the mud spoil from the excavation of the basins which were to form Portsmouth dockyards), he put forward the suggestion that Whale Island should be levelled and drained to allow the construction of a new gunnery establishment to replace the 80 year-old ship which at the time was rotting and needed replacement. The proposal was rejected as ridiculous. Having completed the course, there followed a year's tour of duty as an instructor after which Scott was posted as gunnery lieutenant on HMS Inconstant part of a squadron responsible for training officers and men in the use of masts and sails. In October 1880 the ship set off for a world cruise but having visited South America, was ordered from the Falkland Islands, on the outbreak of the First Boer War to sail to South Africa, arriving in mid-February. They were not involved in the hostilities and by mid-April had sailed once more for Australia.

It was during this cruise Scott devised an electrical indicator system to communicate target ranges from the lookout position on the masthead to the gun deck. Fifteen months later he received a commendation from the Admiralty for his work but ruefully pointed out in his autobiography that on returning to England he discovered his idea had been "... pirated and patented by someone else ... the Admiralty did not supply it to the Service until twenty-five years afterwards."

Returning from Australia via South Africa Scott found himself having to deal with a fire on board when moored in Simon's Bay. From this he learned that the "smoke cap" supplied to wear in smoke-filled environments was of little use and the alternative, wearing a diving suit, was little better because of the weight of the helmet when on dry land. Scott set his ingenuity to the problem and devised a light metal helmet and short coat with waist belt and wrist bands to prevent smoke contaminating the wearer's breathing air which was piped in. This proved effective and once more Scott wrote to the Admiralty with his design and once more it was rejected (on the basis that the Loeb smoke-cap was satisfactory). It was thirty years later that the Admiralty changed their minds.

On their journey home the Inconstant was ordered from Gibraltar to Alexandria. Scott was present at the 1882 British naval bombardment of Egyptian forts at Alexandria, and while witnessing how inaccurate the British gunners were, began to form his own ideas on the nature of naval gunfire. He was commended once more for his ingenious work in dismounting enemy heavy guns from the captured forts for use by the army.

In 1883 Scott was posted to the gunnery school at HMS Cambridge. After six months he was transferred to HMS Excellent once more. Here he once more took up his idea of creating the gunnery school on Whale Island. In spite of the unpromising prospects, he created a detailed plan which he submitted to the commander of Excellent Captain John Fisher. After careful scrutiny Fisher put the plan forward to the Admiralty with his recommendation. The plan was accepted and work started immediately.

In 1886 Scott was promoted to the rank of commander and joined HMS Edinburgh as second in command. Scott attempted to implement some of his ideas for gunnery improvement by holding regular firing practices, but was forced to focus most of his crew's energies on the traditional naval task of cleaning the ship:

In those days it was customary for a Commander to spend half his pay, or more, in buying paint to adorn H.M. ships, and it was the only road to promotion. A ship had to look pretty ; prettiness was necessary to promotion, and as the Admiralty did not supply sufficient paint or cleaning material for keeping the ship up to the required standard, the officers had to find the money for buying the necessary housemaiding material.

During Edinburgh's time with the Mediterranean Fleet, Scott noted the difficulties experienced by the flagship in making signals to the fleet (rather than to individual ships). He developed an arrangement with a masthead light which could be seen in all directions and which because of its height was not lost in the confusion of the other lights within the flagship's superstructure. The flagship adopted the design but the Admiralty then introduced a changed design for general issue which failed to work. Only after several years of "trial and waste of money" was Scott's original design adopted.

In early 1890 Scott left Edinburgh to return to HMS Excellent and take command of the gunnery school. He found that construction was still in progress and his original plans had been "much departed from" and that things were "generally in rather a confused state". Scott proceeded to sort things out with his characteristic energy but there still remained the problem that little provision had been made to deal with road-making, draining and levelling. He judged that taking this issue up with the Admiralty would result in no early resolution so came up with a novel solution: he raised money by subscription to construct a cricket pitch in the centre of Whale Island, well drained and professional constructed. After its completion, their Lordships, the Commissioners of the Admiralty, were making a visit and were shown the new pitch. However, to gain access they had to make their way across the approaches to the pitch ankle-deep in mud. Orders were promptly issued at the highest level for the island to be levelled and drained!

During his term of command at Excellent Scott was appointed to sit on a three man committee to revise and standardise the regulations respecting the navy's uniforms. At the time Navy officers "were wearing practically what they liked" and the Prince of Wales had called attention to this.

Scott was also appointed to serve on the committee which decided what the Navy's contribution should be to the annual military exhibition which later became the Royal Tournament. It was Scott's idea to perform a field gun display (still performed by the Navy to this day). He also put forward the idea of making an artificial lake to conduct a mock sea battle using scale ships. Opposition to the idea was overruled by the Duke of Edinburgh and the show was a great success, generating a surplus after costs of £50,000.

In his three years in command at Excellent Scott had made great strides in "perfecting Whale Island as a barracks" but "its efficiency as a School of Gunnery advanced but slowly". This was because although there seemed to be plenty of money for bricks and mortar, little was forthcoming for the necessary guns, ammunition and equipment for instruction.