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. During the New Guinea Campaign in the Second World War he was the Commanding Officer of the Papuan Infantry Battalion. Following the war, he served as Australia's Vice – Consul to New York. Early life and rugby career Born in Nelson, New Zealand to Australian parents, Watson's father Robert was a blacksmith who had been born in Tasmania. At age 24 William relocated to Sydney and joined the inner-city Newtown Rugby Union Club, playing at prop. 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 USA. The tour was a disappointment with the squad billeted out in college fraternity houses where the hospitality played havoc with team discipline and as result the team lost against two California University sides and three Canadian provincial sides. Watson played in the sole Test match of the tour as well as ten other tour matches of the total possible sixteen. He made appearances for New South Wales in 1913 against the visiting New Zealand Maori and he toured New Zealand with the 1913 Wallabies captained by Larry Dwyer, appearing in a total of eight of the nine matches played including all three Tests packing the scrum in a consistent front-row combination with Harold George and David Williams. When the All Blacks toured to Sydney in 1914 Watson was picked to play against them for New South Wales, as a Wallaby in the first Test in at the Sydney Cricket Ground and in a Metropolitan Sydney side in a mid-week game. An injury prevented his selection in further representative appearances against them. 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. First World War Watson enlisted early in the war joining the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in August 1914 and seeing early action in operations seizing German wireless