Percy William Affleck Scott - 1872 to 1962

Submitted by Ron Abbott on Sat, 01/08/2022 - 12:08

Percy William Affleck Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1872 to what appears to have been a fairly affluent family, and was educated at the Edinburgh Academy.  But by the 1890s he had emigrated to New Zealand and appears in a number of newspaper articles in the Marlborough area (as of 1896). 

He next appears in China (HangChow?), and is employed by the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service. There is mention of him in one book working as a customs officer at Lo Wu (Hong Kong) in the early 1900s.  He is also recorded as working for that service from 1899 until 1930.......

https://www.chinafamilies.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/britishs.pdf

Although married in England in 1908, he was susbequently divorced (in Scotland) for 'desertion' by his first wife (namely Hilda May Scott, nee.Steward, a.k.a. Stewart, a.k.a. Stuart, a.k.a York, a.k.a. Bevan-Yorke), a woman who had changed her name on a number of occasions and who falsified some of her family background.

Between 1926 and 1930, Percy Scott had re-married a Japanese woman (namely Suzu Ichiki) in either Korea or in Japan. 

They later ended up living in Victoria, Briitsh Columbia where he taught music.  He subsequently died therein in 1962.

He appears to have also been a proficient musician playing a variety of instruments including mandolin, banjo and the Great Highland Bagpipe.  He also composed a number of bagpipe tunes which were commercially published in Logan's Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music.  Tunes including 'Sandy Strafed the Germans', 'Sir Michael the Wizard', 'The London Scottish Advance to Messines' and 'Major A. Lindsay Steward, ASC'. 

I have details regarding his family and general background, but lack any further information about his time in Hong Kong and would be especially interested if anyone has any record of him being a member of the St Andrews Society, any other society/association, the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps or anything bagpipe related.

Thanks/Ron