George Watson BLACKWOOD CBE

BLACKWOOD, George Watson

Service Number: WX3433
Enlisted: 28 November 1940
Last Rank: Colonel
Last Unit: 2nd/1st Field Workshop
Born: Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, 9 November 1907
Home Town: Perth, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Engineer
Died: Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia, 6 June 1982, aged 74 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Not yet discovered
Memorials:
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World War 2 Service

28 Nov 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Colonel, WX3433
18 Feb 1943: Honoured Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Australian Army 2/1 Army Field Workshops; Lieutenant Colonel (Service No: WX3433) OBE (Mil) 'Most valuable and outstanding service in the Middle East' London Gazette: 18 February 1943 p858 position 9 Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 15 April 1943 p837 position 9
29 Nov 1946: Discharged Australian Military Forces (WW2) , Colonel, WX3433
Date unknown: Involvement Lieutenant Colonel, WX3433, 2nd/1st Field Workshop

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Biography contributed by Chris Buckley

Born in Scotland in 1907, George arrived in Western Australia in 1911. The eldest of four children of William Blackwood (born in Lanarkshire, Scotland in 1876) and Isabella Strang Watson (born in 1887 in Scotland).

George started work with the Western Australian Government Railways as a Draftsman in Perth in 1927, and from 1934 to 1937 was an Engineer in Singapore with Wearne Bros.

Returning to Western Australia in 1937, George married Dorothea Bernice Campbell (born 1911 in Boulder, WA) in Perth, and in 1939 enlisted in the CMF as an Engineer, In November 1940 George was with the Australian Army's Electrical and Mechanical Engineers 2/1 Field Workshop. George was a Lieutenant Colonel (Service No: WX3433) when he was awarded an Order of the British Empire (MIL) for 'Most valuable and outstanding service in the Middle East' (London Gazette 18 February 1943; Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 15 April 1943).

Brothers - in - Law - Ivan Harold Campbell (Service No: 415506); and Fordyce Jack Campbell (Service No: WX1942) served in WWII.

1946, George and Dorothea settled in Yallourn, Victoria where George was Superintendent of the State Electricity Commission Central Workshops. George died in 1982 and Dorothea in 2001.

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