William Thornton Watson, DSO, MC, DCM (10 November 1887 – 9 September 1961) was a New Zealander who served as an officer in the Australian Imperial Force in both World Wars. Prior to and after the First World War he had a distinguished rugby union career, representing Australia in eight Test matches and captaining the national side on three occasions. During the New Guinea Campaign in the Second World War he was the Commanding Officer of the Papuan Infantry Battalion. Following the war, he served as Australia's Vice – Consul to New York.
Early life and rugby career
Born in Nelson, New Zealand to Australian parents, Watson's father Robert was a blacksmith who had been born in Tasmania. At age 24 William relocated to Sydney and joined the inner-city Newtown Rugby Union Club, playing at prop. In 1912 he made his representative debut for New South Wales and that same year was selected for the 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States. The tour was a disappointment with the squad billeted out in college fraternity houses where the hospitality played havoc with team discipline and as result the team lost against two California University sides and three Canadian provincial sides. Watson played in the sole Test match of the tour as well as ten other tour matches of the total possible sixteen. He made appearances for New South Wales in 1913 against the visiting New Zealand Maori and he toured New Zealand with the 1913 Wallabies captained by Larry Dwyer, appearing in a total of eight of the nine matches played including all three Tests packing the scrum in a consistent front-row combination with Harold George and David Williams.
When the All Blacks toured to Sydney in 1914 Watson was picked to play against them for New South Wales, as a Wallaby in the first Test in at the Sydney Cricket Ground and in a Metropolitan Sydney side in a mid-week game. An injury prevented his selection in further representative appearances against them. World War I which broke out during the tour, cut short Watson's rugby career as it did for so many other promising players yet would provide ample opportunity for grave displays of valour and courage.
First World War
Watson enlisted early in the war joining the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in August 1914 and seeing early action in operations seizing German wireless stations in German New Guinea at New Britain and New Ireland. After his discharge, back in Sydney Watson enlisted as a Gunner in the 1st Divisional Artillery in March 1915. His unit embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A35 Berrima in June 1915. A letter home from his Wallaby team-mate Clarrie Wallach says that Watson saw action at Gallipoli. He landed there in August and joined the 1st Field Artillery Brigade. Evacuated from Gallipoli via Egypt his unit was transferred to the Western Front in March 1916 and soon promoted to Sergeant. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in September 1917.
In action on the Western Front he was in November 1917 awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for "gallantry and coolness in going to the assistance of wounded men under heavy fire" and shortly thereafter was promoted to full lieutenant. In May 1919 he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry as forward Observation Officer at Faucoucourt on 27 August 1918 – "in one case he worked his way forward several hundred yards in front of [the] outposts, directing the fire of three batteries, which gave great assistance to the infantry by barraging machine gun nests and strong posts" Late in the war he would earn a bar to his MC for conspicuous gallantry displayed in heavy bombardment near Bellicourt on 2–3 October 1918 when although badly gassed, he tried to save the life of a wounded officer and stayed in command of his battery until withdrawn from the line.