Private Thomas John Scott
Thomas John Scott was born on 18 September 1888 at Drain, Dungannon, County Tyrone, the first of nine children of farmer John Scott and his wife Adelia (née Abernethy). By the time of the 1911 Census he was living at Drain with his parents and four siblings and working on the family farm.
Scott enlisted in the North Irish Horse at Dungannon on 24 February 1914 (No.910).
Mobilised on the outbreak of war, on 15 September 1914 he returned home to marry Helen Hall Newell at the Church of Ireland Church in Clonoe.
Soon after this he fell ill. A medical board at Belfast on 30 September found he was suffering from inflammation of the sciatic nerve:
He states that he first contracted his complaint four years ago at Dungannon as a result of a wetting. He recovered but not completely and in June 1914 whilst in camp at Newcastle, he got another wetting which greatly aggravated the disease. He complains that from above the left hip to below the knee he has constant sharp pains and that in wet weather these are worse. He says that the left lower limb is quite stiff every morning so that he can hardly put it to the ground. I do not think military service had any part in originating his disease but, it may have been renewed by the wetting at Newcastle.
On 10 October 1914 Scott was discharged as permanently unfit for further military service (paragraph 154, Special Reserve Regulations). His military conduct was recorded as 'very good'.
After his discharge Scott returned to farming at Lisaclare, Clonoe. His wife Helen died on 26 July 1919 and fourteen months later he married Rachel McKeown at Newmills Presbyterian Church, County Tyrone.
In the late 1920s the family emigrated to Australia, where they farmed at Parkes, New South Wales. Scott died there on 14 November 1953.