Second Lieutenant William Watson

Second Lieutenant William Erskine Watson, 17th (Service) Battalion, King’s (Liverpool Regiment). He was killed in action in France on 24th March 1918 during the German March offensive ( Operation Michael ) and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, Somme, France. He had been born in Eccles and educated at George Watson’s College in Edinburgh before joining the Commercial Bank of Scotland in October 1915. He then enlisted in the Black Watch being commissioned into The Kings in April 1917. The front was in retreat but a daring counter attack by the Battalion in which he fell, captured two machine guns and held the Germans back for a time in order that the remnants of their comrades in the 89th Brigade could escape. The 17th was a “Pals” Battalion along with the 18th,19th and 20th Service Battalions of the Regiment. The photographs show Allied troops preparing to resist the Advancing Germans in rather makeshift defences.

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