Henry Young Darracott Scott

Henry Young Darracott Scott RE (1822–1883) was an English Major-General in the Corps of Royal Engineers, best known for the construction of London's Royal Albert Hall.

The fourth son of Edward Scott of Plymouth, Devon, and was born there on 2 January 1822. He was educated privately at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

Scott obtained a commission as second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 18 December 1840. After going through the usual course of professional instruction at Chatham he was stationed at Woolwich and Plymouth in succession. Promoted to be first lieutenant on 19 December 1843, he went to Gibraltar in January 1844, where he was acting adjutant of his corps. While at Gibraltar he accompanied Arthur Penrhyn Stanley and his two sisters on a tour in Spain. In 1848 he returned to England, and was appointed assistant instructor in field works at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. He was promoted to be second captain on 11 November 1851, in which year he married. He was in the same year appointed senior instructor in field works at the Royal Military Academy.

On 1 April 1855 Scott was promoted to be first captain, and was appointed instructor in surveying at the Royal Engineer establishment at Brompton, Chatham, where he was the close adviser of the commandant, Colonel Henry Drury Harness, in the reorganisation of this army school. At Chatham he had charge of the chemical laboratory, and his experiments enabled him to perfect the selenitic lime which goes by his name. His system of representing ground by horizontal hachures and a scale of shade was perfected at Chatham, and adopted for the army as the basis of military sketching. During his residence at Brompton, Kent, a drought occurred, and he assisted in establishing a waterworks in the Luton valley.

On 19 May 1863 Scott was promoted to be brevet major, and on 5 December of the same year to be regimental lieutenant-colonel.

...
Wikipedia