Admiral Sir Percy Moreton Scott, 1st Baronet, KCB, KCVO (10 July 1853 – 18 October 1924) was a British Royal Navy officer and a pioneer in modern naval gunnery.

Scott was educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy, Southsea, and entered the navy as a cadet in 1866, at the age of thirteen, and in 1868 received a post on HMS Forte, a 50-gun frigate.

It was during this period that, having created a serviceable running track on Whale Island (which had been largely created when dumping the mud spoil from the excavation of the basins which were to form Portsmouth dockyards), he put forward the suggestion that Whale Island should be levelled and drained to allow the construction of a new gunnery establishment to replace the 80-year-old ship which at the time was rotting and needed replacement.

[8] Having completed the course, there followed a year's tour of duty as an instructor after which Scott was posted as gunnery lieutenant on HMS Inconstant part of a squadron responsible for training officers and men in the use of masts and sails.

Scott set his ingenuity to the problem and devised a light metal helmet and short coat with waist belt and wrist bands to prevent smoke contaminating the wearer's breathing air which was piped in.

Scott proceeded to sort things out with his characteristic energy but there still remained the problem that little provision had been made to deal with road-making, draining and levelling.

[20] During his term of command at Excellent Scott was appointed to sit on a three-man committee to revise and standardise the regulations respecting the navy's uniforms.

[21] In his three years in command at Excellent Scott had made great strides in "perfecting Whale Island as a barracks" but "its efficiency as a School of Gunnery advanced but slowly".

[22] Promoted to the rank of captain in January 1893,[23] Scott served on the Navy's Ordnance Committee until 1896 when was given his first sea command, HMS Scylla, a 3400-ton cruiser in the British Mediterranean Fleet.

The new arrangement proved highly effective in improving the ship's gunnery but when the plans were sent to London in 1899 they were rejected and Scott was reprimanded because the new scheme required an extra man in the gun crew.

Expecting hostilities to break out in South Africa, Scott managed to persuade the Admiralty to allow him to make passage via the Cape of Good Hope rather than the originally planned Suez Canal route.

[30] While busy in his role as Military Commandant and supplying adapted naval guns to the army, Scott also devised a system for communicating with the besieged Ladysmith using a ship's searchlight mounted on a truck, a salvaged dynamo and a venetian blind arrangement to allow messages to be flashed.

[34] In China Terrible and its crew became involved in the Boxer Rebellion and once more Scott found himself dismounting his guns to provide assistance to land forces and making a significant contribution to the Battle of Tientsin.

[35] After hostilities ceased Scott returned to working up his ship's gunnery capabilities, devising novel training aids and trying to better the 80% score which had been achieved in the Scylla.

[41] In early October he visited Balmoral Castle where King Edward VII invested him with his CB, and appointed him a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO).

This system was only practical in ships having a uniform calibre main armament, which dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers had, but conferred a significant advantage in accuracy particularly in bad weather and heavy seas when visibility was poor.

Because of a forthcoming fleet inspection by Kaiser Wilhelm II, Beresford signalled all ships to abandon any exercises they were currently engaged in, to enable them to be painted and tidied.

In his autobiography he made the comment, "this assurance appealed to my sense of humour, for I well knew that the Admiralty, as a body, were moving heaven and earth to prevent director firing being adopted.

He gained support from Sir John Jellicoe, at that time serving as a member of the Navy Board, who authorised that one ship, HMS Neptune, should be fitted with the director system and work started in December 1910.

However, opposition came from the Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet (who ironically flew his flag on HMS Neptune, the only ship in the Navy fitted with the apparatus).

[58] When Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty he directed that a head-to-head trial should be arranged between Thunderer and another similar ship not fitted with the director apparatus.

Although his view was later vindicated and the error put right at considerable expense, he was "...much disliked for his pains" when he pointed out "...the ships would be of no use for fighting purposes, unless they went stern first into action.

[68] When war broke out, at the request of Field-Marshal Earl Roberts, Scott provided proposals for the use of 6-inch naval guns mounted for mobile use on land as long range artillery.

[70] His first job, however, was to organise the conversion of sixteen merchant vessels into a squadron of dummy warships which he effected with the help of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

After some confusion it was agreed that Scott's association with the Corps should end and he took a position as advisor to Field-Marshal John French on air defence questions.

[80] For the rest of the war Scott continued to suggest improvements on a wide range of subjects: his intervention with General Sir Henry Rawlinson led to changes being made to the mountings on the army's 9.2inch guns resulting in an increase in range from 13,000 to 17,000 yards[81] while he also made important suggestions as to the handling of searchlights on the navy's ships to improve their ability to fight in the dark.

For the same cost as a battleship, several "aeroplane-carrying" ships could be built with aeroplanes capable of projecting 100,000 lbs of high explosive out to a range of 150 miles (240 km).

More significantly, officers of the day were allowed to commercialize their inventions, and Scott landed a royalties agreement with Vickers leading to aggregate payments to him of some £200,000[49] equivalent to over £5,000,000 in 2005's money.

Financial independence allowed Scott to indulge his intellectual arrogance and judgemental nature, which, when combined with his flair for self-publicity, formed the basis of his fractious relationship with Navy authorities.

However, Jackie Fisher, creator of the radical Dreadnought concept and a dominant influence on naval reform in the years leading up to the First World War, recognized Scott's merits, kept his career on track and was instrumental in promoting and introducing many of his ideas.