Allan Scott: Gallipoli hero and Australian high jump recordholder

25 April 2022

Allan Scott: Gallipoli hero and Australian high jump recordholder

I have written about Allan Scott over the last few years, but I’ve recently discovered more extensive information about his record in the military battles in Gallipoli, France and Belgium – David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW.

Australian high jump record holder in the 1910s, Sydney’s Allan Scott, was a Gallipoli hero who lost his life when shot by a German sniper at West Flanders in Belgium. He was in the first wave to arrive at ANZAC Cove, involved in the Battle of Lone Pine, shot three times during the Gallipoli campaign and he commanded the last group to leave the peninsular. He received awards for gallantry and a section at Gallipoli was named after him. In battles in France and Belgium he was recognised as a great leader and tactician before being killed in 1917.

Allan Humphrey Scott was born 3 April 1891 in Tumut, NSW, the son of Donald Scott, Tumut manager of the Commercial Banking Co. and his Sydney-born wife Maria Caroline, who was the sister of Chief Justice Sir Philip Street.

When Scott’s father was moved back to Sydney (Wahroonga) in 1897, Allan studied at Sydney Preparatory School and Sydney Grammar School. He was a popular student: “not only a splendid and well-known athlete, but an exceptionally popular one too”. He excelled at hurdling and high jump. He joined East Sydney Athletics Club and aged just 15, he was ranked as the eighth best high jumper in Australia. In 1908, aged 17, he placed second in the national high jump championship. While still a teenager in 1911 he equalled the Australian open record with a leap of six feet (1.83m). He became the first NSW over six feet and set a NSW record which would last 14 years. A height of 1.83m would have placed him eighth at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics and even seventh at the 1920 Olympics.

After leaving school he worked as a clerk at Dagety and Company and from 1909-13 he served with a volunteer unit, the 1st Battalion, New South Wales Scottish Rifles, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.

At the outbreak of War he felt it his patriotic duty to join the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), enlisting on 28 August 1914. The Platoon Commander was within two months promoted to Captain commanding D Company a company of the 4th Battalion as they departed for Egypt in October 1914.

Gallipoli

Captain Scott landed on Gallipoli with the first wave on 25 April 1915. Such was his success that “Scott’s Point”, one of the furthest spots reached on that first day, was named after him.

Scott was at the forefront of the action on the attack on Lone Pine which took place on the afternoon of 6 August 1915. With the sun setting behind, the 4th Battalion with the rest of the 1st Brigade, charged across the open ground and climbed over the defences forcing their way into the trenches. The assault lasted less than half an hour with fighting that was close, savage and desperate in winding trenches, often in near darkness. The Australians took the position but for the next four days the Turks counterattacked and close-range grenade, machine gun and bayonet duels inflicted massive casualties on both sides. Scott and his men were cut off in the trenches. Under heavy machine gunfire Scott covered his men by shooting at the enemy, enabling his men to withdraw to a stronger position. It was for ‘conspicuous gallantry’ at the attack on Lone Pine that Captain Alan Scott was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and three days later was promoted to Major.

Wounded three times during his service on Gallipoli, by the time of the evacuation in December 1915 Scott was acting as major and commanded the last 30 men of the 4th Battalion to leave the trenches.
 

Western Front

In 1916 in Egypt, Scott, noted by his education, intelligence, character, and now by performance as an outstanding leader. Just 18 months after leaving his desk job, and aged only 24, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and put in command of the newly formed 56th Battalion where he was required to train new recruits.

From Egypt he took his battalion to France to where his men would receive a bloody introduction to the killing fields on the Western Front. On 19 July 1916 the 56th Battalion took part in the almost suicidal attack on German trenches at the village of Fromelles. The attack was a disaster and all of the battalions involved lost heavily. The 5th Australian Division, of which Scott’s 56th Battalion was part, lost 5,533 men.

Early in 1917 the Germans were pushed back to the Hindenburg line; the 1st and 2nd Bullecourt battles to seize part of that line cost the Australians 10,000 casualties and badly shook their confidence in the British high command, but there were tactical highlights. One was Scott's attack on 2 April on Louverval village, a salient of the German rear-guard. Charles Bean's detailed account of the way Scott used his platoons, offering a text-book model of a night attack timed to end at first light.

Scott continued to lead his battalion with distinction into 1917, and on a number of occasions assumed temporary command of the 14th Brigade. He was mentioned in Despatches for his excellent conduct and courage on three separate occasions.

In the early morning of 26 September 1917 the 56th Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Alan Scott was part of the 5th Division’s assault on the German defensive network holding Polygon Wood. Under deadly fire the Australians fought their way from one German defence position to the next and by sunset had dug in along the captured positions. An artificial mound, the butte of a previous firing range, was a useful observation post on the new line. After holding the position for four days, the 56th Battalion was to be replaced by a British unit.

Lieutenant Colonel Alan Scott remained at Polygon Wood and took his British counterpart, 25-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Turnbull DSO, up onto the butte to observe both allied and enemy positions. In an instant Scott and Turnbull were killed by a freak shot from a German sniper as they looked out from the elevated mound.

After the war the scattered graves around the butte were collected and formed into an immaculate cemetery administered by the Imperial War Graves Commission. Atop the butte is the monument to the 5th Australian Division. Alan Scott and Dudley Turnbull of Britain, lie beneath two of over 2,000 headstones in the beautiful and poignant Buttes New British Cemetery in Polygon Wood, today it is the site of an annual Anzac Day dawn service in Belgium.

Major General Sir Nevill Smyth, V.C. , who was Scott's brigade commander on Gallipoli, later wrote of him: 'He was of athletic build, tall, with long straight limbs. His usual manner was quiet and modest and his calm, reassuring power and presence of mind never forsook him in the stress of battle. Gentle, honest and unpretentious, he was respected and loved by all who served with him'.

#AnzacDay22 #ANZAC #LestWeForget

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Allan Scott (left) and Allan Scott