Lieutenant-Colonel E.S. Scott
2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment

 

At all times since D day up to the present moment he has cheerfully accepted responsibility and worked long hours to ensure that the formations and units fighting the battle had all the assistance and support they required. He has supervised with great care the training and work of his subordinate Staff Officers and liaison officers so that operation instructions emanating from Div HQ have been coordinated, clear and accurate.

(M.B.E. citation, 29 Mar 1945)

Born on 20 May 1912 Uckfield, Sussex, Eric Surtees Scott was a golfer and commissioned officer with the Essex Regiment (The Buffs) since 1932. Having qualified as a staff officer, in mid-1943, he was appointed GSO 1 for the 49th (West Riding) Division. He helped with the planning and training before the Normandy invasion, and following the division’s landing after D-Day continued to “shoulder a great deal of responsibility during these stages.”

He remained with division headquarters through the liberation of France and Belgium, and was made Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his staff work. In early 1945, he was posted to the 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment as second-in-command. He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel M.A.H. Butler in April 1945, and led the unit until the end of the war in Europe. He retired from the regular army in 1953.

Scott died on 1 August 2005 in Wareham, Dorset.