Arthur Watts (illustrator)

[1] Educated at Dulwich College, Watts was a talented artist from an early age and inked funny drawings in the margins of his school books; at Crystal Palace Poster Academy, he was awarded a silver medal for merit in 1901.

[2] Watts served in World War I in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, attaining the rank of commander and receiving the Distinguished Service Order for his bravery in the Zeebrugge Raid in 1918.

[7] In 1911, Watts was living with his wife of one year and their baby daughter Margaret at 21A Regents Park Road in central London, where he worked from a studio at home as a successful illustrator.

He also did four drawings a week for Radio Times; illustrated about a dozen books, including Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield; and designed travel posters for the railways and the London Underground.

Watts was killed at about 12:15 hours on Saturday, 20 July 1935 when travelling aboard KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) Douglas DC-2 (registration "PH-AKG") named "Gaai" on a scheduled flight from Milan, Italy to Amsterdam, Netherlands, via Frankfurt, Germany.

The story reported that the aircraft was at too low an altitude to fly over the mountains towards San Bernardino but found the southern end of the pass blocked by a mass of dark clouds.

An investigation found that the storm in the area had been so violent that swollen rivers had swept away two bridges, the local power plant had been put out of action and that the weather had played a significant part in the accident.