Stephen Watts was born in Glasgow in 1910 and attended North Kelvinside Higher Grade School and was initially apprenticed to an accountant before turning to journalism first as film critic of The Bulletin (1928–32) and then editor of the Scottish Stage magazine (1931–1934).

[1] As recounted in his war memoir Moonlight on a Lake in Bond Street, Stephen Watts volunteered for the army the day after war broke out, and eventually rose to the rank of Major in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, and was "lent" (but not formally transferred) to the Intelligence Corps.

[4] He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal by the United States of America for his work as the MI5 Representative on the Inter-Services Security Board, United Kingdom (1943–44), in particular because, "Through his cooperation and unstinted advice, Major Watt (sic) rendered invaluable assistance and aided materially in the performance of the American military mission".

[1] Stephen Watts was married twice: first to Academy-Award and Emmy winning costume designer Margaret Furse, who won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969), until her death in 1974,[1] and second, in 1979, to Lady Helen Richards (widow of the judge Sir Norman Richards QC) until his death in Guilford in 1996.

Although he lived in London for the rest of his life after moving there in 1932, he remained attached to his home city of Glasgow and, in particular, maintained a lifelong friendship with the Scottish writer and broadcaster Jack House.