I wrote about my grandfather, William Spiller (my mother's
father), and his experiences during WWI in a previous blog post. This time I thought I would write
about someone on my father's side. Dad's
father did not serve in WWI, but the husband of one of Dad's Aunts did (though
they were not married at that time), so it is him I am going to write about
this time.
James Watt was born on 7 Jun 1884 in Newmains, Lanarkshire
to William Watt and Jessie, nee Forrest. He joined the Glasgow Police in 1907 and
was awarded the Carnegie Medal for Bravery. He migrated to Australia sometime between
1910 and 1914 (his arrival has not been found) and joined the NSW Police Force.
Shortly after the outbreak of WWI, on 2 Sep 1914, he enlisted
at Randwick in the 4th Battalion AIF and was given the rank of
Piper. On 20 Oct 1914 he embarked on
HMAT Euripides for the conflict as part of the first detachment of the Australian and New Zealand Imperial Expeditionary
Forces.
HMAT Euripides
James Watt was amongst those who made the first dawn landings
at Gallipoli. A newspaper report in 2005
written by his daughter-in-law contains the following:
"Soon after the battalion was struggling up the hill
with 300 rounds of ammunition, iron rations, etc, and Watt, who was hanging on
to his bagpipes, was asked to stay behind for a while to take care of the
packs. This was no good to him; he was
with the boys a few minutes later, bagpipes and all, and his pipe in his
mouth."
He received a gunshot wound in the neck and shoulder, serious
enough to result in him being discharged and sent back to Australia. His military service records are confused on
the date this occurred, but it appears to have been in May 1915.
The newspaper report mentioned above says that when he
returned to Australia he was considered unfit for duties as a serving policeman,
and so he was employed on light duties in the Central Court from 1916 until his
death.
But on 3 Oct 1917, when he married May Brockbank at the
Central Methodist Mission in Sydney, he gave his occupation as police officer.
They moved to Lithgow, where May's family lived, and that was where their first
child was born. Two undated pension
applications by James Watt which are included in his service record give
addresses of "Police Dept, Bourke St., Redfern" and "Police
Stn., Lithgow". By 1923 at the
latest they were back living in Sydney, and it is probably from that time that
he worked at the Central Court.
The injury he had received at Gallipoli eventually resulted
in his death on 11 Sep 1932. The medical
officers had been unable to remove the bullet that had caused his injury
The cause on his death certificate was "Cerebral
Haemorrhage lasting 2 hours", and it is considered to be related to his
wound at Gallipoli, so his widow received a war widow's pension until her death
in 1981.
