2nd Cpl. Douglas Scutt 195713 93rd BN, 1st Canadian Tunneling Co.

 

2^nd Corporal Douglas Scutt

93^rd Canadian Overseas Battalion/ 

1^st Canadian Tunneling Company, Canadian Engineers

Regimental Number 195713

Douglas Leslie Donald Scutt was born in Durrey Hill, Wiltshire, England on December 17^th, 1895 to parents Robert and Esther Scutt. 

 In 1911 Douglas immigrated to Canada and eventually settled in Warsaw, Ontario.  It was from there that he enlisted into the 93^rd Peterborough Battalion on February 8^th, 1916.  He was 20 years of age and stood 5 feet 9 inches tall, and weighed 157 pounds.  He was descried as having a fresh complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair.  He was a member of the Church of England and had no previous military experience.  He listed his brother Claude of Wiltshire, England as his next of kin.  Douglas was declared fit for service by medical officers, though it was noted that he had defective vision on his attestation form.

 Douglas remained in the city of Peterborough while the 93^rd recruited up to strength, then left with them for Barriefield Camp near Kingston, Ontario at the end of May.   After learning the basics of soldiering at Barriefield, Douglas and his battalion entrained for Halifax in July, and left from that port on the 15^th aboard the SS Empress of Britain.  The ship  and arrived safely in Liverpool, England after 10 days at sea.

The 93^rd marched to West Sandling Camp, in Shorncliffe where they would undergo further training and await posting to the front.  Like many units the Battalion was to be broken up and its ranks used to reinforce other battalions already at the front.  As the first drafts of 93^rd men left for the front, Douglas was reassigned to the 6^th Reserve Battalion at West Sandling, and later would be among the men in a draft of reinforcements to the 2^nd Infantry Battalion on January 1^st 1917.

A typical WWI mineshaft

 Scutt arrived in France and joined the 2^nd Canadian Infantry Battalion on January 14^th 1917.  He served with them for a relatively quiet month in the trenches before being assigned to the 1^st Tunneling Company, Canadian Engineers on the 5^th of February.  The Tunneling Company, as its name implies was largely occupied in digging and maintaining mineshafts that went underneath enemy lines, in which explosives could be laid.  Douglas spent the next seven months in the St. Eloi sector deep under no man’s land driving shafts underneath the German lines and avoiding their attempts at countermining.  After months of tense work underground tunneling and laying explosives under enemy positions, all the while avoiding their German counterparts attempting to do the same to them, Scutt was reassigned to the 5^th Battalion of the Canadian Engineers.  This reassignment took him from underground to regular topside routines of maintaining trench infrastructure and the transportation systems.

During this time he was promoted in rank to Lance Corporal on May 24^th 1918, and then to 2^nd Corporal on November 9^th.  The war ended 2 days later, but Corporal Scutt remained in France until April 13^th, 1919, when he was sent back to England.  Scutt Sailed back to Canada on May 10^th and was discharged 9 days later.  He returned to Warsaw after the war.

Sources

Canada. "Military Service File of Douglas Leslie Donald Scutt." Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa: Record Group 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 8748 - 54. Item Number 219904.