Jessie Scott was born in Brookside, North Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1883 and attended Christchurch Girls' High School.
[2] During this time, she was a guest speaker, along with Dr Elsie Inglis, Chrystal MacMillan and Alice Low, at an NUWSS meeting in Edinburgh's Café Oak Hall.
[2][6] She served in Serbia, where she was captured by the Austrians and kept a prisoner of war for four months, and later became a medical officer with the Serbian Army.
[2][6] For her service in Serbia she was awarded the Order of St Sava 4th class by the Serbian government.
[2][6][7] After the war, Scott returned to London in 1920 where she did postgraduate work in gynaecology and paediatrics at the Chelsea Hospital for Women and the Victoria Hospital for Children, and worked for the London County Council as a medical officer.