Orders, Decorations and Medals

Four: Piper W. Scott, 1st Battalion Seaforth Highlanders

Afghanistan 1878-80, 4 clasps, Peiwar Kotal, Charasia, Kabul, Kandahar (1427 Piper, 72nd Highrs.); Kabul to Kandahar Star 1880 (1427 Piper, 72nd Highlanders) letter ‘E’ in ‘Piper’ overstruck; Egypt & Sudan 1882-89, dated reverse, 1 clasp, Tel-el-Kebir (1427 Piper, 1/Sea. Highrs.); Khedive’s Star 1882, reverse inscribed, ‘Piper W. Scott, 1/Sea. Hrs.’, edge bruising, some naming faint in places, contact marks, good fine and better (4) £1200-1500

In Pipers of the Highland Regiments 1854-1902, by R. H. Crawford, No 1427 Piper Wilson Scott, is shown as having served with 'E' Company, 72nd Highlanders in India and Afghanistan during the 1870's-1880's. He was stationed for a period in Sialkot in 1878, and was present at all the battalion's principal engagements in Afghanistan and Egypt 1878-82. He was stationed at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight during 1883-84, and promoted to Lance-Corporal on 4 September 1884. He was last recorded as serving with the regiment at Beggars Bush Barracks, Dublin, Ireland, in 1889.

A search of the Scottish Census Records for the period 1851-91 returns only one person named 'Wilson Scott' resident in Scotland in the period 1851-91. The person reported appears in the 1861 census and then that for 1891, but does not appear in those of 1871 or 1881, the omission in the 1870's and 1880's, being an indication that he was a serving member of the British Army serving overseas, and hence a likely candidate to be one and same as Piper Wilson Scott (the 72nd Highlanders served in Ireland 1868-71, and from 1871-82 were overseas in India, Afghanistan and latterly Egypt). The 1851 census records for the town of Jedburgh shows that Wilson Scott was born about 1850, in Bougedward, Roxburghshire, Scotland, and was the son of William Scott and Elizabeth Wilson. By 1861, the family (less the father) had moved to Crailing near Jedburgh, Roxburghshire, where they resided in a Servants Cottage. He does not appear in the 1871, or 1881 Scottish census, and next appears in the census for 1891, wherein he is recorded as being 'Head of House' with a wife and daughter, residing at, 4, Lyne Street, Edinburgh (South Leith), Midlothian, where he held the occupation of 'Brewer's Cellar-Man'. He does not appear in the 1901 census or thereafter. With copied notes.