COL. WALTER SCOTT
"BIG BROTHER"
Walter Scott, the merchant and philanthropist, was born in Montreal in 1861, came to the States as a toddler and was educated in the Boston public schools system.
In 1877, at the age of 16, he went to work for the Butler Bros., going on to become the manager of their New York office in 1889 and remained until his retirement in 1932.
He was a Past Royal Chief of the Order of the Scottish Clans, a member of other Scottish societies and a colonel of the New York Scottish Highlanders.
He was a large donor of prizes for Scottish events and created the Walter Scott Medals for Valor which were given to police and firemen in leading cities of the United States, Argentina and Ireland. One of these medals was given to a policeman in the city of Worcester, whose wife is a PCD of Thistle Lodge #2.
He was President of the Walter Scott Free Industrial School for Crippled Children, founded the Broad Street Hospital, endowed scholarships in various colleges, was President of the Stevenson Society of Amerce, honorary police commissioner of New York City, was a member of the Chevalier Legion of Honor in France, the Order of Leopold in Belgium and was awarded the Silver Grand Cross of Austria and still had time for the Daughters of Scotia.
PRC Col Scott attended the first convention in 1919 and endowed a bed at he Roosevelt Hotel in the name of D.O.S.
Sometime between then and 1924, Col. Walter Scott was made an honorary member of the Grand Lodge of the Daughters of Scotia, attended most of the meetings offering his advice on matters.
Col. Scott donated the flags and $50 towards supplies to newly instituted lodges. He also started the awards to lodges initiating the largest number of new members in a year (in his time it was for six month periods). He also gave cash awards to the member bringing in the most new members each year.
In 1926, he purchased a chair in constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. in our honor.
Whenever, there was an appeal to the members for financial help for sisters or a worthy charity, Col. Scott would round out the collection to an even dollar amount. i.e. $50 or $100. During the pubic preliminary opening of the 1927 convention, col. Scott presented the Mayor of Detroit with a $1,000 bond, the interest of which would procure a valor medal to be presented to the most gallant fireman each year.
During the 1925 convention to Worcester, the Grand Outside Guard announced that the Chief of Police requested an audience with Col. Scott. this was evidently common practice wherever Col. Scott went.
Each year Col. Scott sent a basket of flowers to adorn the dais during convention. At the 1923 convention, he donated the silver vase to the Grand Lodge to place flowers in for departed Grand Lodge Officers and Past Grand Chief Daughters, after Col. Scott's death in 1935, our Big Brother Col. Scott was included in this memorial. In 1944, the New Jersey Convention Committee donated a matching silver vase in honor of Grand Chief Daughter, Barbara Leggett who died in office. Since then, one vase is used to honor our departed sisters and the other to honor Col. Walter Scott. In 1978, the Connecticut Convention Committee donated the small vase to honor our founders.
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