Wendell Trueman Scott

Wendell Trueman Scott was born in Baie-Verte, New Brunswick to James and Emma Scott on February 11, 1898.  He had three older brothers, William, James and Deles.

In 1915, he joined the Kent-Westmoreland 145^th Infantry Battalion and began his training at Port Elgin and later in Sackville, New Brunswick. Wendell lied about his age when he signed up for duty as a soldier had to be eighteen to be permitted to engage in combat overseas. In the summer of 1916, they travelled to Valcartier, where some of the men volunteered for machine gun duty in hopes of staying together overseas.  On September 26^th, Wendell left for England aboard the troop ship, S.S. Tuscania for finalized training.  The Battalion arrived early on the morning of October 7^th at Shorncliffe, a camp in Kent where after they were inspected. The group began to disband and were absorbed by other Battalions.

 Wendell and a few others trained together in the 19^th Machine Gun Company at the Vickers Machine Gun School at Crowborough in Sussex.  There they learned how to use the Vickers, a machine gun that weighed 40 pounds and could fire 500 rounds per minute and was cooled by water.  This new gun, first introduced in 1915, was replacing a heaver model, so it was very new technology for the time.  The gamble they had made at Valcartier paid off and some of the men from the 145^th Infantry Battalion stayed together, training and enjoying leave time.  After three months of training, on February 5, 1917, they were transferred to Camp Witley, which was located on Surrey Downs hilltop near Guildford and was primarily an infantry camp.  Luckily for Wendell, the Reserve Artillery, which was one of the largest Canadian training units in England, was situated there.  A part of the Canadian School of Gunnery, part of the training included instruction of how to use the Vickers machine gun which Wendell and company had already had much training.

  By August of 1917, rumours where spreading about getting marching orders to the Italian Front.  They were even called to pack up and go to the railway station for deployment, by for some reason, Headquarters cancelled the order.  However on March 22, 1918, the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th Machine Gun Companies of Reserve Canadian 5^th Division were called to action and by late the next day, their train steamed into Southhampton.  The next evening they were on a ship heading for Le Havre, France.   After arriving in France, the troops sent a night of rest and headed out at dawn of March 25^th. 

 While taking in the beautiful sights of farmland on the way to camp they came upon the town of St. Pol and the reality of war literally hit the convoy.  German planes swooped in and bombed the convoy and the surviving trucks pulled around the wreckage and casualties and kept going.  The next few weeks were spent doing gun drills, inspections, and listening to on lectures about gas attacks. The weather was very dreary and it rained a lot, making marching between camps miserable.  On April 7, Wendell and two others, Vincent Goodwin and George Prescott decided to sneak up to the front line to visit George’s cousin Tom Prescott.   This was very dangerous as they could have been shot sneaking into a frontline trench by their own side, not mention a breach of security.  Again Wendell’s luck was with him and they made it back safely without reprimand.  Because he was underage and knew how to handle horses, Wendell was assigned to be an officer’s batman, which means he was like a servant to that officer and had to be a groom to the officer’s horse.  On October 8, he met up again with his good friend Vincent Goodwin when he joined the 2^nd Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade’s gun crew heading out for an attack on Cambrai. Along the way, the Germans started firing on them. Officially, the 2^nd CMMG Brigade saw nine major battles: The Somme, Amiens, Arras, Monchy, Jigsaw Wood, Bourlon Wood, Cambrai, Valenciennes and Mons.  There is an unofficial tenth battle at the Marquion Bridge.

After the armistice, the Canadian Corps served with the British Army of Occupation.  Wendell’s company was sent to Germany and they had to march 170 miles to get there.  They made it Bonn on December 13^th and stayed until January 25^th, 1919. Thence travelled to France and Belgium and back to England on March 6.

On May 6, 1919 Vincent and Wendell boarded the “Scotian” for home.  Arrived May15^th at 11 am in Quebec and caught the train to Saint John where they obtained their discharge papers and left on Saturday morning for home as free men.  They arrived home at Baie-Verte after being gone for two years and eight months.  Each man received a large gold locket and a handwritten letter from the “Homecoming Committee.”

He was a lobster fisherman by trade beginning when he was eight years old. Married Daisy in 1932 moved to West Point, PEI to a small four room house right next to the wharf. Uncle Wendell and Aunt Daisy did not have children of their own so they spoiled their nieces and nephews.  Wendell was a very jolly fellow and from all appearances did not show any effects from his time at war.  He became the unofficial taxi driver in later years as he was the only resident that owned a car.  Being so close to the wharf, Wendell and Daisy were usually the first people to great and entertain visitors that arrived by boat.  One of the most famous guests to visit and stay with them was author Farley Mowatt and his father Angus.  Uncle Wendell took them on a tour of western PEI visiting O’Leary and Alberton. Farley Mowatt writes of this visit in his book “Eastern Passage”.

Wendell answered the call again during WWII remaining in Canada guarding Nazi prisoners as part of the Veterans Guard. The Veterans Guard was composed mainly of soldiers from the First World War that were now too old to be in battle. Their jobs consisted of guarding prisoners and aliens on the home front, also guarding places that could be targeted by enemies such as power plants.