1. Percy Scott did not endear himself to the Navy establishment for his regular outspoken criticism of the Navy's conservatism and resistance to change and this undoubtedly slowed the acceptance of his most important ideas, notably the introduction of directed firing.
Percy Scott served in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War and was based at Cape Coast Castle.
Percy Scott was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1875.
Percy Scott set his ingenuity to the problem and devised a light metal helmet and short coat with waist belt and wrist bands to prevent smoke contaminating the wearer's breathing air which was piped in.
Percy Scott was present at the 1882 British naval bombardment of Egyptian forts at Alexandria, and while witnessing how inaccurate the British gunners were, began to form his own ideas on the nature of naval gunfire.
Percy Scott was commended once more for his ingenious work in dismounting enemy heavy guns from the captured forts for use by the army.
In 1886 Percy Scott was promoted to the rank of commander and joined HMS Edinburgh as second in command.
Percy Scott attempted to implement some of his ideas for gunnery improvement by holding regular firing practices, but was forced to direct most of his crew's energies towards the traditional naval task of cleaning the ship:.
Percy Scott developed an arrangement with a masthead light which could be seen in all directions and which because of its height was not lost in the confusion of the other lights within the flagship's superstructure.
In early 1890 Percy Scott left Edinburgh to return to HMS Excellent and take command of the gunnery school.
Percy Scott found that construction was still in progress and his original plans had been "much departed from" and that things were "generally in rather a confused state".
Percy Scott proceeded to sort things out with his characteristic energy but there still remained the problem that little provision had been made to deal with road-making, draining and levelling.
Percy Scott judged that taking this issue up with the Admiralty would result in no early resolution so came up with a novel solution: he raised money by subscription to construct a cricket pitch in the centre of Whale Island, well drained and professionally constructed.
Percy Scott's accomplishment was unbelievable for the time, and many thought that he had cheated in order to gain such a success.
Percy Scott addressed this in two ways: he devised training aids and put his signallers under instruction and he devised a new more effective flashing lamp.
The new efficiency of his ship's signalling was quickly noticed by the Commander-in-Chief resulting in Percy Scott's programme being adopted by the whole Mediterranean fleet.
Percy Scott devised a new sub-calibre gun whose use involved fitting a one-inch calibre rifled barrel inside the barrel of the main armament but which used the main guns controls.
Percy Scott devised new sights employing telescopic optics and new training targets.
The new arrangement proved highly effective in improving the ship's gunnery but when the plans were sent to London in 1899 they were rejected and Percy Scott was reprimanded because the new scheme required an extra man in the gun crew.
Percy Scott was able to signal the Governor of Natal that the city was safe.
In China Terrible and its crew became involved in the Boxer Rebellion and once more Percy Scott found himself dismounting his guns to provide assistance to land forces and making a significant contribution to the Battle of Tientsin.
In July 1902 Percy Scott received orders to return with his ship to Britain and after making passage via the Suez Canal returned to Portsmouth in September.
The Excellent served as a training ground, especially for gunnery, and Percy Scott was able to continue to refine his ideas.
In 1903 Percy Scott was appointed aide de camp to the king, a largely honorary role which he held until promotion to flag rank in 1905.
Percy Scott was instrumental in encouraging the development and installation, initially in dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers, of director firing, a system whereby the guns were all pointed, elevated and fired from a single point, usually at the top of the foremast.
Percy Scott devised and presented to the Admiralty an advanced form of director firing which they patented for the nation and then proceeded to boycott.
Percy Scott was promoted to rear-admiral in 1905 and was appointed inspector of target practice, a role created for him by his mentor Jackie Fisher.
In 1907 Percy Scott took command of the 1st Cruiser squadron of the Channel Fleet, under the command of Lord Charles Beresford.
Percy Scott's ships were in the middle of a gunnery exercise; he lost his temper and sent an insubordinate signal which resulted in a public reprimand.
Beresford attempted to have Percy Scott court-martialled, but the Admiralty refused.
Percy Scott was moved to a command outside Beresford's orbit and promoted to vice-admiral in December 1908.
Work resumed three months later when Percy Scott returned to take up a post in the Admiralty to expedite the programme.
Percy Scott had involved himself from 1907 in further controversy by criticising the Admiralty's decision to authorise the construction of new ships with their main mast behind the foremost funnel, thus compromising the effectiveness of the gunfire observation position on the main mast.
Percy Scott retired from the navy in 1913 to make way for the promotion of younger men.
Percy Scott directed his attention to the issue of submarines, against which there was no effective defence at the time.
Unable to convince the Admiralty that submarines were anything more than a toy, Percy Scott went direct to the politicians to secure money in the naval budget to fund submarine defences.
Percy Scott argued that submarines represented a potent threat to the fleet and that no fleet could hide from the eye of the aeroplane: "probably if we went to war, we should at once lock our battleships up in a safe".
When war broke out, at the request of Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, Percy Scott provided proposals for the use of 6-inch naval guns mounted for mobile use on land as long range artillery.
In November 1914 Percy Scott was called into the Admiralty by Winston Churchill and Lord Fisher, returned once more as First Sea Lord, to be told he was to be employed as an advisor in connection with the gunnery efficiency of the fleet.
Once more Percy Scott turned his attention to the submarine menace.
Percy Scott proposed that rams should be put on torpedo boats, destroyers and trawlers, and he submitted a design for a bomb which could be used to attack submarines on or near the surface.
Percy Scott was however frustrated by the Admiralty's exhaustive development process and instead of having a basic howitzer depth charge combination in late 1914, the weapon did not become available until 1916.
Much of Percy Scott's time was employed cutting through red tape and getting the Grand Fleet fitted with director-firing.
Percy Scott lost his eldest son, a midshipman in one of the cruisers sunk in the battle.
Percy Scott decided that the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet could not possibly perform the tasks required of them and so he refused the appointment.
In September 1915, following a Zeppelin raid on London, the First Lord, Arthur Balfour ordered Percy Scott to establish the London Air Defence Area to defend London from the increasing threat of air attack.
Percy Scott worked tirelessly to get guns from the Navy and Army for conversion into anti-aircraft guns.
On his own authority, Percy Scott dispatched Lieutenant-Commander Toby Rawlinson to Paris, who through his personal contacts managed to secure from the French two lorry-mounted examples of the highly effective 75mm gun; Rawlinson, a former racing driver, returned to London with the guns within 72 hours, before the Admiralty had actually written the order for them.
In 1919 Percy Scott began a remorseless but ultimately unsuccessful campaign in The Times against the battleship, saying I regarded the surface battleship as dead before the War, and I think her more dead now if that is possible.
However, Jackie Fisher, creator of the radical Dreadnought concept and a dominant influence on naval reform in the years leading up to the First World War, recognized Percy Scott's merits, kept his career on track and was instrumental in promoting and introducing many of his ideas.
Percy Scott was first married in 1893 to Teresa Roma Dixon-Hartland.
In 1914 Percy Scott remarried to divorcee Fanny Vaughan Johnston Welman but this relationship endured only briefly.
Percy Scott's younger brother Malcolm Percy Scott was a popular comic entertainer in theatres and on radio.