James Scott (1895 – 1 July 1916) was a Scottish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

in the Scottish League for Raith Rovers. He scored on his only appearance for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in a wartime international in 1916, during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was described as "an all-round forward" and "the most consistent goalscorer Raith have ever had".

Personal life

Scott was born in Airdrie to James Scott and Annabella Bennett. He attended

Airdrie Academy Airdrie Academy is a secondary school within Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. Admissions It has a current roll of approximately 1,100 pupils. As part of Education 2010, a new building was opened in October 2006 to replace the previous on ...

and later became an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

wire rope Steel wire rope (right hand lang lay) Wire rope is several strands of metal wire twisted into a helix forming a composite ''rope'', in a pattern known as ''laid rope''. Larger diameter wire rope consists of multiple strands of such laid rope in a ...

maker with the Caledonian Wire Rope Company. On 4 April 1915, Scott married Catherine Reekie and they had one child, James. Scott served as a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

in McCrae's Battalion of the Royal Scots during the

. On the

first day of the Somme The first day on the Somme, 1 July 1916, was the beginning of the Battle of Albert (1916), Battle of Albert the name given by the British to the first two weeks of the 141 days of the Battle of the Somme () in the First World War. Nine corps ...

, he was hit in the stomach and neck by

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

fire and killed during an attack on

Ovillers-la-Boisselle Ovillers-la-Boisselle is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Geography The commune of Ovillers-la-Boisselle is situated northeast of Amiens and extends to the north and south of the D 929 Albert–Bapaume r ...

. Scott is commemorated on the

Thiepval Memorial The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...

Career statistics

Honours

* Raith Rovers Hall of Fame

References

Scottish men's footballers 1916 deaths British Army personnel of World War I 1895 births Scottish Football League players Raith Rovers F.C. players Footballers from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire Royal Scots soldiers McCrae's Battalion Military personnel from North Lanarkshire Men's association football forwards British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme Scotland men's wartime international footballers People educated at Airdrie Academy Petershill F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players {{Scotland-footy-forward-1890s-stub