Albert “Percy” Scott was born on 26^th September 1872 in Newport to a typical middle-class family; his father, John William Scott, a tea dealer and draper who would later become an inspector of taxes at the Inland Revenue.

Scott was listed in the 1891 census as having “no occupation” but he was apprenticed to the agricultural engineering company called The Lukely Engineering Company and although he had known Wadham from school days it was here that the two men met and formed the friendship that would lead to the starting up of the Dreadnought Casting Reel Company. In 1898 he is listed in the local trade directory as a Cycle repairer at Trafalgar road very near to the Lukely Works.

He set himself up in business supplying bicycles and was reputably the first person on the Island to fit pneumatic tyres.

In June 1900 his cycle building business was experiencing some difficulty and a receiver was appointed. By 1901 he was listed as a Cycle Engineer again at Trafalgar Road and by 1904 was a Cycle manufacturer. With the advent of the motor age it was not that hard for an experienced and skilled engineer to convert to a motor engineer as Scott Engineering Ltd.

He continued to work with Lukely Works in some capacity as evident by the fact that they were manufacturing the weed cutters.

According to his grandson he built his own three-wheeler car with his own designed gearbox which was later sold to a company that patented it and called it the “Sturmey Archer Gearbox.” He also designed a folding landing net the idea being sold to Hardy Brothers. It transpired that Scott was on a train on his way to a casting competition when he met and shared a compartment with John James Hardy and he showed him his new idea for a landing net. By the time the journey had ended JJ had bought the patent idea from Scott.

With the outbreak of the First World War his engineering company with its capacity for precision engineering was sub-contracted by S.E Saunders (later Saunders & Roe aircraft builders) at East Cowes making boat and aircraft parts.

By the end of the war the company was carrying out all types of work and were now listed as mechanical engineers. Between the two wars the company continued to make reels and the weed cutters and specialised in agricultural machinery working out of the factory in Orchard Street.

The Scott Company would continue to manufacture the reels in their own engineering workshops.

Albert Scott was a better caster than Percy Wadham and we see that in the 1910 Casting competition when he broke the world record only to have it disqualified as he had not measured his rod correctly. He had discounted the rod butt button.

He made the Dreadnought and Simplex weed cutters that were invented by Percy Wadham.

He died on 9^th July 1935 aged 62 at Selworthy House Lugely street Newport. In July the fishing Gazette carried his obituary stating that he had made a gold-plated fishing reel to the order of a French fishing firm that was presented to George V on his coronation. A gold-plated Coronation reel would be something to behold but alas I have tried to locate it but to no avail., it would almost certainly have been commissioned by Henry Selby of Au Pêcheur Ecossais.

The occasional reel continued to be made by Scott’s engineering company with John Scott, Percy Scott’s son, managing the company. During WWII, they made jettison tanks and other parts for the Spitfire aircraft. The engineering works continued into the late 1950s making refrigeration parts for the J. S. White shipyard and although some reels were made they were not for general sale.

John Scott closed the engineering works and sold fishing tackle from the front room of his house which was the front of the old engineering works. The tackle shop was called Scotties, which was later sold and moved to other premises.

AP Scott was an accomplished amateur artist with a few of his prolific output being saved from the bomb fire.