WATSON John Alexander
grocer, insurance agent and citizen soldier 1891-1980

Dadda Watson was born 25 June 1891 at Ballarat, son of Alexander Watson, a miner, and Susan Harriet, nee Moizer. His father died while he was still young, and he moved with his mother to West Brunswick when she remarried. After completing his education, John entered the grocery business until enlisting as a driver in the Australian Army Service Corps in 1915 for service overseas in the Australian Imperial Force in World War 1. He served with 5 Div Train in Egypt and in operations on the Western Front, attaining the rank of corporal.

Discharged after return to Australia in 1919, Watson resumed his grocery business, marrying Florence Grace Kendall Francis in 1924, taking up residence at Coburg, and subsequently becoming an insurance agent.

He joined the Citizen Military Forces and was commissioned as a lieutenant 23 June 1926 in 4th Division Train, being promoted to captain 1 March 1929 and major 3 April 1934. He was appointed to command 4th Division AASC 1 March 1939, as part of a new wave of Militia commanders who were replacing the long-serving World War 1 era officers. Transferring to the 2nd AIF and moving to the Middle East in 1940, he commanded 1st Aust Corps Troops Supply Column until February 1941, when he was given command of 9th Division AASC. He served in the siege of Tobruk, commanding the 2,500 troops and thousand vehicles of the logistic support organisation with such ‘energy and resourcefulness’ that he was awarded the OBE, and subsequently at the battle of El Alamein where once more ‘outstanding energy and efficiency’ won him the DSO, to which were added two Mentions in Dispatches. Never an imposing looking man, but rather the ‘dapper little gentleman’ known to his family, his soldiers knew him as ‘Dadda’, a father figure who was both uncompromising in the standards he set and always mindful of their welfare.

Returning to Australia in March 1943 Watson was promoted Colonel and was successively DDST 2 Aust Corps and 1st Aust Corps in the New Guinea campaigns, then with Blamey’s Advanced Land Headquarters in Hollandia and later Morotai, until his succession of senior operational staff appointments ended with medical evacuation in mid-1945. From then on, he was DDST Southern Command, and also a member of the Committee of Review of the Interim Army until the end of his distinguished service in early 1948.

John Watson then returned to his insurance business until his retirement in Heidelberg; he and his wife divided their time between their passion for golf, wintering in Queensland, and maintaining his long connection with Coburg Methodist Church. He died on 1 March 1980 after a full life at the age of 88, survived by his wife and two daughters.