Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Lieutenant J. H. A. Scott, The Queen's Regiment, killed in action in the bitter fighting at Kohima

1939-45 STAR; BURMA STAR; DEFENCE AND WAR MEDALS, together with named condolence slip and card box of issue addressed to his next of kin, good very fine (4)

John Henry Alan Scott was born on 4 July, 1920, and educated at Dulwich College. Proceeding to Wadham College, Oxford, he took his degree in Law under the war scheme in July 1940, after which he carried out his O.C.T.U. training at The Buffs Depot and obtained his commission in The Queen's Royal Regiment in the following March. He went overseas in March 1942 and joined his regiment on the North West Frontier, subsequently becoming an instructor at a Battle School in Central India. In due course he joined his regiment there in Burma, where he was twice wounded in action. In May 1944 the regiment was classified as sufferingfrom malnutrition as a result of the Arakan privations', and were not supposed to be used in action until September at the earliest. However, as part of General Messervy's 7th Indian Division, The Queen's, in company with the 4/15th Punjab and the 4/1st Gurkhas, arrived at Kohima on 5 May. Here they became involved in some of the bitterest fighting in the Second World War. In the attack on Hunter's Hill and Church Knoll, Messervy called for support from the R.A.F. who strafed the positions during the 24th and 25th May until it seemed impossible that any Japanese could survive. Enemy resistance proved to be as strong as ever and it was here that Lieutenant Scott was killed while leading his men in the attack on 25 May 1944. He was mentioned in despatches.