William Watson 195268

93^rd Canadian Infantry Battalion/ 21^st Battalion

Regimental Number 195268

William John Watson was born in Warsaw, Ontario on December 27^th, 1882. He was the son of John and Jane (Killingbeck) Watson.  The family farmed in Dummer for a number of years, but moved to Lakefield, sometime before 1901.   William married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Wallace of Peterborough in Toronto in 1904.

William was living at 558 Chamberlain Street in Peterborough when he enlisted with the 93^rd Peterborough Battalion on November 8^th, 1915.  He claimed four years of previous service in the 57^th Militia Regiment.  He was nearly 33 years old at the time; he stood five feet, eight inches tall and had a dark complexion, hazel eyes and dark brown hair.  William was married and a member of the Church of England.  His occupation was that of a canoe builder.  A medical inspection revealed that he had a scar between the thumb and index finger of his left hand, and a depressed bridge of his nose.

William would have been able to live at his Peterborough home with his wife and two children while training with the 93^rd Battalion throughout the winter of 1916.  In late May, after the battalion was recruited up to strength, it left Peterborough for Barriefield Camp, Kingston, where the men trained for a further two months before travelling to Halifax.  Watson and his comrades boarded the S.S. Empress of Britain on July 15^th and set sail for England, arriving there ten days later.

The 93^rd was stationed at Otterpool Camp in West Sandling, England.  They were not there two months before being disbanded, and the ranks being transferred to the 39^th Reserve Battalion to await re-assignment to a Canadian Battalion already fighting at the front.  Watson did not go to the front, but was instead attached to the newly arrived 188^th Canadian Battalion on November 1^st for a week before being assigned to the 3^rd Canadian Training Battalion.  He then bounced to various reserve battalions at West Sandling in the months from November to July, 1917.  Watson’s pre-war training in the militia and the way that he was attached to various reserve battalions might have indicated that he was involved in some sort of training of new recruits from Canada.

Watson was finally ordered to report to France on August 27, 1917, when he was assigned to the 21^st Battalion, which had been fighting there since early 1916.  He left England and joined his new battalion on September 6^th in the village of Villers au Bois in the Vimy Sector.

Watson served with the 21^st Battalion through the last fourteen months of the War, participating in such hard-fought battles as Passchendaele, Amiens, and Arras.  It is near miraculous that Watson made it through these violent affairs without a scratch, and immediately after the three-day attack on Arras finished, a battle that claimed 55% casualties in the 21^st Battalion, Watson was granted two weeks of leave to England.  He finished his leave on the 23^rd of September and rejoined his unit just as it was entering the attack on the Canal du Nord.  Luckily for Watson and his comrades, the 21^st Battalion played only a supporting role in the battle and did not received the high casualties that many of the units did that spearheaded the assault.

They were not so fortunate in their next engagement on October 11^th during the Battle for Cambrai where the 21sters were charged with attacking the French village of Iwuy.  This battle would make history as the first and last time the Canadians would face a German tank attack in the Great War.  It was a hard fought battle that Walton survived even though his battalion suffered over 50% casualties in their first thirty minutes.

William Walton survived the war and remained in France for several months after before returning to England on March 14^th, 1919.  He proceeded to the Military Police Depot where he presumably was given a quick course in becoming a member of the Military Police. 

Watson was stationed at the 6^th Reserve Camp in Seaford on March 17^th 1919, before moving the Reserve Camp at Ripon England on the 23^rd of April.  He left for Canada on June 6^th aboard the R.M.S. Scotian on the terms that he would continue to serve in the army as a military policeman (M.P.) upon arrival.  He made his way to Kingston, Ontario and assumed his duties as an M.P. there on May 17^th.  He served for two months in that capacity until being discharged on June 24^th 1919.

Sources

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1891. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Census Place: Dummer, Peterborough East, Ontario; Roll: T-6363; Family No: 234.

Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Registrations of Marriages, 1869-1928; Reel: 113

Library and Archives Canada. Census of Canada, 1901. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Year: 1901; Census Place: Lakefield (Village), Peterborough (east/est), Ontario; Page: 1; Family No: 7.

Canada. "Military Service File of William Watson." Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa: Record Group 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 10149-38. Item Number 302264.

Cook, Tim. Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting The Great War 1917-18.  Toronto:  Penguin Canada. 2008.

Nichol, Stephen J.  Ordinary Heroes: Eastern Ontario’s 21^st Battalion C.E.F. in the Great War. Canada.