Leroy Hugh Watson (November 3, 1893 – February 12, 1975) was a career officer in the United States Army who attained the rank of major general.

A 1915 graduate of the United States Military Academy ("The class the stars fell on"), Watson served in the Pancho Villa Expedition and World War I.

Concerned that he was not leading the division effectively during combat in France, his superior, Omar Bradley, a West Point classmate and lifelong friend, relieved him of duty.

Watson was reduced in rank to colonel and assigned to the staff of Bradley's Twelfth United States Army Group.

After retiring, Watson lived in Beverly Hills, California, where he served on the city council and was mayor from 1962 to 1963.

[5] He was the regimental adjutant for most of the war, and took part in combat from August until its end in November, including the Meuse-Argonne Offensive,[5] earning his first award of the Silver Star.

[12] When the Army reorganized its armor forces into divisions in February 1942, it created three brigade-level Combat Commands in each.

[16] Watson led 3rd Armored Division during combat in France beginning in late June 1944 as part of First United States Army.

[18] He was reduced in rank to colonel and assigned to Bradley's staff at Twelfth United States Army Group Headquarters.

[18] In August 1945, Watson was appointed to command the 79th Infantry Division, which he led during post-war occupation duty in Germany until it was inactivated in December 1945.

[24] After retiring from the Army, Watson resided in Beverly Hills, California, and was appointed assistant to the president of Fletcher Aviation, with responsibility for providing oversight, advice and guidance for Fletcher's military aviation projects and programs.

[30][31] In 1965, Dwight Eisenhower authored a Reader's Digest article on leadership, and cited Watson's relief as commander of the 3rd Armored Division and request to remain in France at a lower rank as a notable example of selfless service.

[32] In retirement, Watson was also active with the Winsor Memorial Heart Research Foundation of Los Angeles.

[35] They were the parents of four children - Sarah (Sally, a nun in the Sisters of Charity) (1916–2005), Leroy Jr. (1917–1959), Margaret (Peggy) (1921–2013), and Robert (1933–1990).

[37][38] While stationed in Germany after the war in 1946, he married Liba J. Besin (1923–1949), a native of Czechoslovakia and former translator at the Nuremberg trials, with whom he had a daughter, Antoinette.

[39][40][41] In 1950, he married Beulah Beatrice (Beggs) Pellekaan (1890–1990) of Beverly Hills, the widow of a Shell Oil Company executive.