| John Suffern Scott was the eldest son of James A and Isabella Scott. James Scott married Isabella Garvin on 17th May 1892 in the district of Magherafelt.
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| John Suffern Scott was born in Bellagherty, Ballyronan, Magherafelt on 15th July 1898. He was the eldest of six children.
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| The 1901 census lists John S as age 2 living with the family with his grandparents at house 3 in Bellagherty, Salterstown. His father was a farmer.
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| Family: James A Scott, Isabella Scott, John Suffern Scott (born 15th July 1898), George K Scott (born 29th August 1900), Sarah M Scott (born 23rd September 1902), Rachel C Scott (born 3rd March 1904), James S Scott (born 2nd November 1905), Annie Mary Scott (born 7th August 1908).
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| The 1911 census lists John S as age 12 living with the family with his grandparents at house 29 in Bellagherty, Salterstown. They were a farming family. John was still at school.
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| John Scott emigrated to Canada.
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| Prior to enlisting, John worked as a labourer.
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| John Scott enlisted at Valcartier Camp in Quebec on 21st September 1914 and joined the 8th Battalion Canadian Infantry. He claimed he was eighteen, but in fact he had just turned sixteen a month earlier.
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| John Suffern Scott enlisted with his cousin John. He too was called John Scott. He was known as Jack Scott. Jack’s Scott’s father was called William.
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| Some of the newspaper reports seem to confusing two different John Scotts. Both served together with the Canadians. Jack Scott’s number was 922. John Scott’s number was 923. Both hailed from the same area, Loup / Ballyronan / Moneymore.
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| He was described as being five feet nine inches tall, with blue eyes, red hair and a fair complexion. He was twenty-one years of age and was part of the Canadian Expeditionary Force sent to Europe in early 1915, and served alongside his cousin, Jack Scott.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 20th March 1915: Ballygrooby Soldier’s Letter – Jack Scott - cousin of John Suffern Scott
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| Mr William Scott, Ballygrooby, Moneymore, received the following letter from his son, John Scott, who belongs to the Winnipeg 90th Rifles and has been with the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the front for some time:-
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| ‘I have just received your most welcome present. We have just come back from the trenches after some days firing at the Germans, arriving at our billet about one o’clock last night, and just as I awoke, mail came in for our company, and I never enjoyed anything so much as I did the pastries you sent me., as we can get none to buy where we are. My cousin John also received a cake from home at the same time as well as some cigarettes. I was glad to receive the brown tobacco, but you need not send me any more tobacco as we are getting more now than we can use. When I sent to you for some, we thought we could only get French tobacco and we do not like it. I will be very pleased if you can send me more cake any time you can. John and I are sleeping together and are together in the trenches. Our trenches are only about 200 yards from the Germans, so as soon as night comes we start shouting at each other. The Germans sing a song and then they shout over to us that it is our turn next, so we give them one. We keep shouting to each other all night. John and I are both well.’
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| Private Scott was serving with the 90th Winnipeg Rifles when he was injured in the spring / early summer of 1915.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 27th March 1915:
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| Private John S Scott, of the Canadian contingent at present in the trenches, writing to his old teacher, Mr James Keatley, Ballyronan National School, tells of a narrow escape when in a tight corner where his chum was shot at his side. Private Scott is a son of Mr James Scott of Woods parish.
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| They were part of a force of 18,000 Canadians who suffered a gas attack at what is now known as Vancouver Corner. This was the first occasion a large Canadian force had been exposed to gas. A 35 foot high memorial of a Canadian soldier with his head bowed stands on the spot to commemorate the 2,000 Canadians who died there on 22/23rd April 1915.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 29th May 1915: With the Canadians – Moneymore Man’s Experience (Jack Scott- cousin of John Suffern Scott)
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| Private John Scott, of the 90th Winnipeg Rifles, writing to his father, Mr William Scott, Ballygrooby, Moneymore, says:-
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| ‘I am sure you were very anxious for a few days when you saw in the papers the sort of fighting the Canadians had come through. No doubt we suffered very heavy losses, but we held the line and kept the Germans back. I guess you saw in the papers where the Germans tried to break through our lines, but were stopped by the Canadians. I can tell you it was one of the bloodiest battles that ever was fought since the war begun. On the 22nd we were in the first line of trenches when early in the morning we discovered a cloud of greenish smoke coming from the German trenches, and we did not know what it was until it came into the trenches and then we knew too well when we started to drop for the want of breath, and at the same time they kept shelling our trenches with shrapnel, but still our boys held on. Then the Germans started to advance in three lines, but when our lads heard the enemy was advancing they jumped to their posts, although nearly half dead with poison, and made their rifles speak out ‘No Surrender’. Our fire so quick and effective they had to retire again. We repulsed them three times that morning, each time with heavy losses. But that was only the beginning of what was to come. Next day the poison came again and the awfulest shell fire ever witnessed, but still we held on for our lads were determined to do or die. We have got one of the best colonels in the British Army, Colonel Lipsett, and he formerly belonged to the Royal Irish Regiment. It makes me sigh with pain when I think of so many of my brave comrades who have gone never to return. I never expected to come out alive, but the Lord brought me through safe and sound. I got my rifle smashed in my hand with shrapnel and I had bullet wounds in my boots and tunic and yet I never got a scratch.’
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 18th June 1915:
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| Private John S Scott, 90th Winnipeg Rifles, who is a son of Mr James Scott, Bellagherty, Ballyronan, County Derry, has arrived home wounded. He was hit in the thigh in the famous charge in which the Canadian guns were saved at Ypres.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 19th June 1915: Ballyronan Boy at Neuve Chapelle
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| Private John S Scott, of the Winnipeg Rifles, is in stature, a man; in experience of war, hurts, alarms and horrors, a veteran; but in years a boy who has not yet seen his seventeenth birthday. Private Scott emigrated to Canada on April of last year, and is son of Mr and Mrs James Scott, Bellagherty, Ballyronan, where he returned last week of his convalescence before returning to the trenches. He has all the reticence of the returned soldier who has seen things and has taken part in the doing of things, the very recital of which quickens the pulse beat of us who only hear of them. He first went into action with the bayonet at Neuve Chapelle and was one of that portion of our troops mentioned by Sir John French as having charged so fearlessly and far that they were caught by the fire of their own artillery and forced to retire. Speaking of that charge he says:-
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| ‘The only thing that stands out clearly in the mental picture is the sight of those burly big men holding up their hands and crying for mercy from us, many of whom were but boys, and we had mercy.’ And then he added significantly:- ‘But that was before the terrible Thursday on which they began to gas us. On that day the gas, which was quickly followed by an overwhelming force of themselves, forced us out of our trenches and back for a distance of two miles, where we dug ourselves in and held on for three days. It was here we left the four guns you read of in the papers, in the wood of St Julien, and in the recapturing of which, I was wounded, and it was here too, we came upon the crucified body of a soldier of the 48th Canadian Highlanders who had been caught on the evening of our retirement.’
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| Speaking of the famous charge which recaptured the four Canadian guns, Private Scott said the order to charge came at midnight. The night was clear and the Germans in the darkness of the wood round the guns were able to exact a terrible toll from the advancing Canadians by machine gun and rifle fire before they came to grips. The picture of that Canadian Highlander back there on a tree envenomed every breast and soon, one after another, the guns were retaken and held. Just as the enemy guardians of the last gun had been despatched (and young Scott accounted for four himself), a bullet found a billet in his right thigh. He did not known he had been hit for some considerable time and until he began to feel the blood flowing freely from walking. Bandaging the wound himself, he walked unaided to a dressing station two miles behind the trenches. From there he was sent to hospital at Boulogne, then to Rouen, where after operations he was sent to England for recovery. As his leg is yet very stiff, he has been granted an extension of home leave on the recommendation of Mr A D A Gaussen, J.P.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 30th June 1915:
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| The Canadian record office, amongst other casualties have issued the following:- Private John Scott, Moneymore, 8th Battalion, wounded.
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| John Suffern Scott survived the Battle of the Somme.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 11th October 1915:
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| Another Moneymore soldier, Private John Scott, is also home at present on leave. Private Scott emigrated to Canada a short time before the war began. He came over with the second contingent of Canadian troops, and was wounded by a high explosive shell bursting on a parapet of the trench near where he was standing, the explosion killing several of his companions.
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| Sergeant John Suffern Scott was serving with the 8th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry when he was killed in action north of Lens on 15th August 1917. He died on his 19th birthday.
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| The Canadian Circumstances of Death Register records that Sergeant Scott was killed in action on 15th August 1917. His unit was involved in an attack at Hill 70 at Loos.
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| From the Belfast Newsletter dated 11th September 1917:
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| Sergeant John S Scott, Canadian Infantry, killed, was the eldest son of Mr James Scott, Bellagherty, Ballyronan.
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| From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 31st August 1918:
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| SCOTT – In sad but loving memory of our dear son, Sergeant John S Scott, Canadian Rifles, who was killed in action in France on 15th August 1917. Inserted by his sorrowing parents, brothers and sisters. Bellagherty, Ballyronan.
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| Sergeant Scott was buried in Eighth Canadian Cemetery at Lens, which was subsequently destroyed by shellfire.
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| He and fourteen of his comrades were re-interred in Rue Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix, France.
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| His brother George Scott also served throughout the war and survived. His cousin Jack also survived the war.
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| Sergeant John Suffern Scott is commemorated on Woods Church Roll of Honour near Ballyronan.
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