Tom Scott was born in Glasgow and was the son of a shipyard worker. His family moved to St andrews in 1929, and he worked as a labourer in his father's building firm on leaving school at fifteen. After serving in the Army, he gained a PhD from Edinburgh University for his work on William Dunbar. His poetry is written almost entirely in Scots. His collections include The Ship (1963), The Dirty Business (1986), and his Collected Shorter Poems were published in 1993. He was co-editor of the Oxford Book of Scottish Verse, and also edited the Penguin book of Scottish Verse in 1970.