Lieutenant and Quartermaster Francis William Jarratt Scammell
Francis William Jarratt Scammell was born in 1875 at Bognor, Sussex, the eighth of ten children of shoemaker William Scammell and his wife Elizabeth Mary Jane (nee Foot).
Scammell enlisted in the 16th (The Queen's) Lancers at Canterbury on 2 March 1894 (No.5490). At the time he gave his occupation as engine cleaner. He was promoted to unpaid lance corporal on 8 January 1898. He served with the Lancers in the East Indies from February 1895 until January 1900, when his regiment moved to South Africa to join the Boer War campaign. He returned home in November that year. Twelve months later he was transferred to the 21st (Empress of India's) Lancers.
Scammell rose gradually through the ranks over the next decade – paid lance corporal on 17 September 1902, corporal on 16 April 1904, lance sergeant on 2 May 1905, sergeant on 5 May 1907, squadron sergeant major on 29 November 1909, squadron quartermaster sergeant on 21 September 1910, and regimental quartermaster sergeant on 24 February 1912. He attained a number of qualifications, including 1st Class Certificate of Education, Commissorial Supplies, Efficiency in Nursing, and Musketry (Distinguished).
On 4 January 1904 he married Alice Maud McConnell at St Paul's Church, Dubin. Their first child, Norah Kathleen, was born at Rathmines on 21 December 1904 and their second, Arthur Francis, at Canterbury on 3 September 1910.
Scammell served with his regiment in Egypt from September 1910 then India from October 1912, before returning home on 2 January 1913. Five days later he was attached to the permanent staff of the North Irish Horse as a squadron sergeant major.
He served throughout the war at the regiment's reserve depot at Antrim. He was appointed acting regimental sergeant major on 14 September 1915. On 2 May 1917 the appointment was confirmed for the duration of the war. On 1 October 1917 Scammell formally transferred from the 21st Lancers to the North Irish Horse (Corps of Hussars No.71972).
In July 1918 Scammell was attached to the Army Service Corps at Aldershot and on 27 October he was commissioned as a lieutenant and quartermaster on the General List of Officers. He embarked for France on 8 November 1918, three days before the Armistice was signed, where he joined the 5th Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment, in the field.
Scammell remained an active member of the North Irish Horse after the war, playing a part in its annual 'Old Comrades' reunions. He worked for many years as manager of the spirit merchant firm Lyle and Kinahan.
He died at 45 Queensberry Park, Belfast, on 10 October 1945.
Scammell's son, Staff Sergeant (Armourer) Arthur Francis Scammell, served on World War 2 in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He died in the Middle East on 15 July 1941.
Belfast Weekly Telegraph, 2 August 1941
Image 1 from the Belfast Evening Telegraph, January 1919, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson, Researcher at History Hub Ulster (www.greatwarbelfastclippings.com).
Image 2 can be seen in its full context here. Two more images of Scammell are here and here.