London Regiment 9th Battalion Officers
The Illustrated War News 31st March 1915

Major Edwin Claude Porter Scott was the son of Founder William Booth Scott. He followed his father into the Regiment and the Lodge.

He was initiated aged 22 in February 1879, rising to be Worshipful Master in 1886. He then succeeded his father as Treasurer in 1888 until 1897, when he swapped seats to become Secretary, an office he held until 1925.

He only missed two meetings in this period of 37 years. The first on the death of his only child, Doris Mary Mackenzie Scott in 1908. The second occurred later the same year when he and his wife Gertrude Helen Allan-Holmes were travelling in Sicily. Their trip coincided with the major earthquake in Messina in 1908 that resulted in the loss of some 77,000 lives. They were in Taormina, unharmed and immediately set about helping the injured. Writing to the Lodge he said:

“Thank God, although in the middle of the disturbed district this village has not suffered in any way other than the awful feeling of being rocked by the earthquake. For days past Mrs Scott and I have been attending to the wants of the sick, wounded and dying. Their sufferings are beyond expression.”

On his return in March 1909 he was reinvested as Secretary and presented with London Rank regalia, the first member of the Lodge to be so honoured.

He was the driving force behind the consecration of our daughter Lodge, Bloomsbury Rifles Lodge No 2362. He was also their fist Worshipful Master.

He was also one of the Founders of our other, now sadly defunct, daughter Lodge, Semper Vigilans No 3040, a lodge for Company Secretaries and associated with the Chartered Institute of which he was a member. Scott was suitably enough the founding secretary. The Lodge was consecrated on 6 June 1904 by Honorary Lodge member and Grand Secretary Sir Edward Letchworth, who was a past member of the Victoria Rifles.

He was commissioned into the 19th Middlesex on 4 July 1888 and soon appointed Quartermaster the following year on 29 May 1889.

He rose to be promoted Major and remained a Quartermaster, retiring only after the end of the Great War in 1919. He is shown in the Reserve Battalion photograph above with fellow officers and Lodge members Col Bradney, Capts Hunter and Sampson, and Lt Fleming and 2nd Lt Keeson

He died aged 71 on 16 January 1928.