William Sanderson Watson was born on 29th September 1909 at 7 Park Drive South, Whiteinch. His parents were Andrew Watson and Annie Williamson McCall, married in 1907; Andrew was a master cooper.
Park Drive South is, of course, now known as Victoria Park Drive South. Number 7 has survived but with the area to the north cut about by roads to and from the Clyde Tunnel:
Its neighbours, 5, 3 and 1 have been knocked down.
From the 1911 Census, Andrew was also an employer (ran his own business) and was doing sufficiently well that they had moved to their own house at 57 Marlborough Avenue, Broomhill, and had a servant called Ellen Nolan from Cleland, aged 15.
The 1921 Census was delayed until Sunday 19th June and many Glasgow families who could afford to do so were on holiday – Andrew and Annie were getting some peace at the Moffat Hyrdro Hotel:
The resident staff are listed first, guests after – the entries from Andrew and Annie are the last on the photo
They were possibly attracted by the adverts:
But where was William? I’ve not been able to place him. It was just as well: on the Sunday night / Monday morning the hotel burned down:
There was no loss of life, and we do not know whether Andrew and Annie had returned to Glasgow that day but it would have been a shock to them even if they had done so.
By 1925 the family had moved to Bearsden and were living in a villa named Sans Souci (Without Cares) on Glenburn Road. This is now Number 14.
We don’t know anything about William’s education but he followed his father and became a master cooper in his own right.
His father died on 23rd October 1936 of a coronary thrombosis at 48 Airthrey Avenue, just north of Victoria Park in Jordanhill. As this happened at 5.30am and William is noted on the death record to have been present, I assume they were living there so they seem to have left Sans Souci after the 1935 Valuation Roll.
The following year William was setting up his own company, as master cooper (Edinburgh Evening News 19th February 1937):
See last entry.
Number 62 Elliott Street was next door to Cranstonhill Bath and Wash House. Today, the façade is retained:
Number 62 was located in the gap between the buildings to the right. On the map below (from 1949) it is ringed in red:
To orientate you, the docks in the bottom left-hand corner are now the Hydro. The Clydeside Expressway now runs horizontally across the centre of the map, roughly following the line of Pointhouse Road in the west and Stobcross Street in the east. Just above the name “Pointhouse Road” you can see Stobcross Station (centre left) – this is now Exhibition Centre Station. The western part of Argyll Street just clips the top right-hand corner of the map.
By 1938 William was living at Balerno, Gartconnell Road; this is now number 13 and at the time it would have looked across the road at the working farm of Gartconnell (farm house still in Elm Walk). This was on the occasion of William’s marriage to Isobel Stewart Smith who was from Clarkston. The wedding took place at Orchardhill Church in Giffnock:
William and Irene made a home at 18 Cairngorm Road, Hillpark, which is between Thornliebank Road and Kilmarnock Road. They had one son, Garry Sanderson Watson, born in 1940.
William had been in the Territorial Army before World War two started in 1939. Given his connection to Bearsden, this was probably with the 9th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the unit recruiting from this area. When mobilised for war, this battalion was converted to two regiments of anti-aircraft gunners and William became a full-time soldier as a Major in 58th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The move of this regiment to France has been described in my profile of the colonel, Purvis Kirsop.
Very little is clear about what happened when the Germans attacked, but the British troops were quickly pinned back against the Channel coast, defending the ports from which that could escape back to England at Dunkirk, Boulogne and Calais. William was at Boulogne and the fighting here ended on 25th May 1940.
William died on 29th May so he may have been wounded first. He was initially buried at Lycee Mariette (Mariette College), but soon after he was reburied in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery.
His death was not confirmed until December 1940 (Daily Record 10th December 1940):
