William Thornton Watson, DSO, MC, DCM (10 November 1887 – 9 September 1961) was a New Zealander who served as an officer in the Australian Imperial Force in both World Wars.
Prior to and after the First World War he had a distinguished rugby union career, representing Australia in eight Test matches and captaining the national side on three occasions.
[3] In 1912 he made his representative debut for New South Wales and that same year was selected for the 1912 Australia rugby union tour of Canada and the United States.
World War I which broke out during the tour, cut short Watson's rugby career as it did for so many other promising players yet would provide ample opportunity for grave displays of valour and courage.
[7] In action on the Western Front he was in November 1917 awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for "gallantry and coolness in going to the assistance of wounded men under heavy fire" and shortly thereafter was promoted to full lieutenant.
[9] In May 1919 he was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry as forward Observation Officer at Faucoucourt on 27 August 1918 – "in one case he worked his way forward several hundred yards in front of [the] outposts, directing the fire of three batteries, which gave great assistance to the infantry by barraging machine gun nests and strong posts"[10] Late in the war he would earn a bar to his MC for conspicuous gallantry displayed in heavy bombardment near Bellicourt on 2–3 October 1918 when although badly gassed, he tried to save the life of a wounded officer and stayed in command of his battery until withdrawn from the line.
The AIF XV played 16 matches winning 12 and featured a number of Wallaby representatives including Dan Carroll, Bill Cody and Dudley Suttor.
He recruited native labour (in a period he still refers to as his "blackbirding days"); traded around the island in crazy schooners; tried cattle ranching; worked as trader, beachcomber, plantation manager and then as a gold prospector in the then practically unknown Owen Stanley Ranges.
Upon Japan's invasion of New Guinea on 21 July 1942 and the commencement of the Kokoda Track campaign, the PIB were the first Australian Army unit to make contact with the Japanese.
Together with the 39th Battalion the PIB made up Maroubra Force which engaged the Japanese in the first unsuccessful defence of the Kokoda airstrip on 28 July 1942.