Background
Scott was the son of Doctor Helenus and Augusta Maria Scott. He was born in Bombay, India and was educated at Bath Grammar School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor in 1822 and an Master of Arts in 1825.
Scott was the son of Doctor Helenus and Augusta Maria Scott. He was born in Bombay, India and was educated at Bath Grammar School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor in 1822 and an Master of Arts in 1825.
Scott was elected to the new Legislative Assembly, representing Northumberland and Hunter from 1856 to 1859, Northumberland 1858 to 1859 and Lower Hunter from 1860 to 1861. He supported the secret ballot and franchise extension. In 1861 he was nominated to the Legislative Council for life, but he took no part in it and resigned in 1866.
A failed entrepreneur, he later became a prominent figure in the commercial establishment of the Newcastle region.
The Scott sisters became established with the publication of Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, drawn from the life by Harriet and Helena Scott which illustrated insects in the stages of metamorphosis, in the environment in which they lived and federal This work, published in 1864, was time-consuming and expensive and publication was delayed for 12 years.
Although published (in London: John van Voorst) under Alexander Walker Scott it was an entirely collaborative work as its title states. Alexander Walker Scott was a trustee of the Australian Museum 1862-1879 and a Fellow of The Entomological Society of New South Wales, founded in 1862, as were both Helena and Harriet, though in their case it was honorary, a rare distinction.
He died in Paddington.
The Scott collection is conserved in the Australian Museum in.