Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Andrew Watson was 35 years old when he enlisted on 28th September 1915. He had been born in Dublin but had spent some time in England where he was apprenticed as a carpenter, and where he served 18 months in the Middlesex Volunteers before emigrating to Australia. He lived in Broadwater Road, Mount Gravatt with his wife, Sophia, and four children.

Andrew was drafted into the 7th reinforcements for the 25th Battalion and embarked on the “Itonus” in Brisbane on 30th December 1915. The 25th battalion as part of the 7th Brigade was one of the first units deployed to France, arriving in Marseilles in March 1916. Andrew was admitted to the Australian General Hospital at Etaples on 17th May 1916 with mumps.

While convalescing, Andrew transferred to the 2nd Pioneer Company. Pioneers were essentially front-line combat engineers tasked with trench construction and consolidating ground won by the infantry. The authorities probably thought that Andrew’s carpentry skills would be useful for this kind of work.

July 1916 saw the opening of Haig’s great attempt to crush the German resistance on the Somme. The battle did not go well but committed to providing relief for the French who were being slaughtered at Verdun, Haig pushed on with his forces of British conscripts and “pals” battalions. In late July, the 1st and 2nd Australian divisions were brought from the nursery sector around Armentieres south to the Somme. The objective was the capture of the village of Pozieres and the ridge line behind the village that was dominated by a blockhouse built on the site of a ruined windmill.

The 1st Division succeeded in taking the village in late July and the 2nd Division took over to capture the lines of German trenches in front of the windmill. During this action, Andrew Watson was listed as Missing in Action.

Subsequent enquiries conducted by the Red Cross located a number of witnesses who stated that Andrew was severely wounded by shellfire while moving up to repair a captured trench. He was not seen again by his mates and there was no report of him coming in to a Field Ambulance or Casualty Clearing Station. A court of inquiry in February 1917 determined that Andrew had been killed in action. No remains were ever recovered.

Although there is no record in the files, it is reasonable to assume that Sophia and her four children received war pensions. Sophia remarried sometime around 1922 and moved to Auckland, NZ.

When the Australian National Memorial was completed at Villers Bretonneux in 1938, the names of some 10,000 Australians who had perished in France and who have no known grave were inscribed on the tablets on the walls of the memorial. Andrew Watson is one such soldier commemorated there.

On the site of the ruined windmill which had comprised the major defensive position above the village of Pozieres there is a commemorative stone which reads:

“The ruin of the Pozieres windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle on this part of the Somme Battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefields of the war.”