In 1901 the Scott family were living at 28 Glover Street, Perth: Father, William (Assistant Station Master, N.B.Ry.) (48); Mother, Jessie (46); Daughter, Janet (Dressmaker) (22); and Son, William.

(11). Extract from Wauchope’s History of the Black Watch in the Great War “The Battle of Ypres, October 1914” “The Battalion rested in Hazebrouck during the day and night of the 19th, and on the 20th marched to Poperinghe, with one company on outpost duty.

On the 21st it marched through Elverdinnghe and Boesinghe to Pilkem, where it remained in Brigade Reserve during the following night. “On this day the Cameron Highlanders, guarding the French flank, had sited a strong post at Kortekeer Cabaret, an Inn about a mile north of Pilkem.

On the afternoon of the 22nd, this important post, and the line of the Coldstream Guards on the right of it, were heavily attacked by picked German volunteers, and both positions were overrun. “During the 23rd the 2nd Brigade recaptured the Cabaret, releasing sixty Cameron Highlanders, and gained touch with the left of the Battalion line. In the evening the rest of the Battalion moved up to Remi Farm, and established connexion with Coldstream Guards on the right, so that by midnight the position was restored and reorganized.”

Although there is no definitive record of where, or how, William Scott lost his life, it would have been at some stage of this action on the 23rd October. He was 24 years of age. De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour “William Scott was the only son of William Scott of 28 Glover Street, Perth, Assistant Stationmaster, North British Railway, Perth General Station, and his wife Jessie (daughter of Thomas Tosh). He was born in Craigie, Perth on the 20th January 1890. "William was educated at Western District School and Sharp’s Institution, Perth. "He enlisted in the Black Watch on the 23rd December 1907. William went to France on the 13th August 1914 and was killed in action near Bixschoote on the 23rd October, during a charge on the German trenches. "He was a first-class shot and for over three years had been clerk to the President of the Regimental Institute. He was also a good musician (organ and piano) being exceedingly fond of music. William Scott is buried at Perth (China Wall) Cemetery near Ypres, in Belgium. He was 24 years old and unmarried.

A statue of a Black Watch soldier was unveiled at Black Watch Corner, near Ypres in Belgium, in May 2014, as part of the centenary of the Great War. The bronze statue, designed by Edinburgh sculptor Alan Heriot, depicts a Black Watch sergeant in World War One. On 13 August 1914, 31 officers and 1,031 soldiers of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) embarked for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and took part in a series of battles and fighting withdrawals, while the German Army pressed forward relentlessly in what became known as the "Race to the Sea". In "The Days of hope" written in 1914 by Lynn MacDonald she said of the area around Black Watch Corner: "It was here that the battle was won. It was here that the battle and the war itself was very nearly lost." Since 2014 the memorial at Black Watch Corner has become a place of pilgrimage during Perth Academy school trips and we have taken the opportunity to lay a wreath and pay our respects on behalf of the school to 40 former pupils who lost their lives serving with the Black Watch.