Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

John Watson #2188 42nd Battalion

John Watson was born at Maroon to parents Kirby and Mary Watson. His father stated he had attended Maroon State School and it is most likely that once he left school around the age of 13 he worked on the family farm.

John presented himself for enlistment to the Adelaide Street recruiting depot in Brisbane on 19th April 1916. He stated his occupation as farmer and gave his age as 18 years and 3 months. This age is almost certainly incorrect as his father stated in the Roll of Honour Circular completed after John’s death that he was 18 years and 7 months in July 1917, giving an age at enlistment of 17 years and 3 months. Such occurrences were not uncommon during the war. The authorities did not require proof of age; and few people had birth certificates. In John’s case, as in so many others, the recruiters probably turned a blind eye.

John was allocated as a reinforcement for the 42nd Battalion and went into camp at Enoggera. While he was still in camp, his parents would have received notification that their son and John’s elder brother, Alex, had been killed in France. Following a period of home leave, John boarded the “Clan MacGillivray” in Brisbane on 7th September. After landing in Plymouth, the reinforcements marched out to the 3rd Australian Division Training Camp at Hurdcott.

John would spend two periods in the Fargo Hospital with influenza and mumps before being posted to France. He was taken on strength by the 42nd on 23rd March 1917.

The spring and early summer of 1917 saw the Australian Divisions of the AIF preparing for the big offensive of 1917 that would take place in Belgian Flanders, near the French Belgian Border. Compared to the battles of the previous year on the Somme in France, the Flanders campaign was far better planned and resourced. The new strategy of “bite and hold” allowed for incremental gains to be achieved from the city of Ypres towards a ridge that was occupied by the village of Passchendaele.

The campaign began on 6th June 1917 with the firing of 19 underground mines beneath the German defences on the Messines Ridge, to the south of Ypres. The 3rd Division AIF had an important role during that period and within two months had consolidated their position on the southern flank of Messines.

On 31st July 1917, it was reported that John Watson had been killed in action at Warneton, just south of Messines. There is no burial report and it is most likely that John Watson was killed during an artillery barrage and his remains were never located. According to his father, John was 18 ½ years old.

Kirby Watson signed for the second group of war medals granted to his deceased sons in 1922.

To commemorate the almost 30,000 men from the British Empire and its Dominions who perished in Flanders and have no known grave, the British Government commissioned a memorial in the rebuilt city of Ypres. The memorial takes the form of an arched gateway in the old city wall leading to the Menin Road. From the time of the dedication of the Menin Gate, the citizens of Ypres have held a commemorative ceremony each evening at 8pm (with only a brief halt to the ceremony during the occupation years of WW2) to remember those who gave their lives in defence of the city. John Watson’s name appears on the sandstone walls which echo to the sound of the last post every evening.