Sir Robert Heatlie Scott, GCMG, CBE (20 September 1905 – 26 February 1982) was a British civil servant who became Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence.

Scott during the 1959 Bruneian Constitution signing

Career

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Educated at Inverness Academy, Queen's Royal College in Trinidad and New College, Oxford, Scott was called to the bar before joining the civil service in 1927.[1] In 1941, during the Second World War, he sat on the Governor's War Council in Singapore.[1] He was taken prisoner by the Japanese after Singapore was captured and beaten and tortured.[1]

After the war Scott became Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office and then Minister at the British Embassy in Washington D. C. before returning to Singapore as Commissioner-General in 1955.[1] He went on to be Commandant of the Imperial Defence College in 1960 and then Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence in 1961.[1]

In retirement Scott was Lord Lieutenant of Peeblesshire and then Lord Lieutenant of Tweeddale.[1] He lived at Lyne Station House in Peebleshire.[2]

Family

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In 1933 Scott married Rosamond Aeliz Dewar-Durie; they had a son and a daughter.[2]

References

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Military offices
Preceded by Commandant of the Imperial Defence College
1960–1961
Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry of Defence

1961–1963
Succeeded by