WO2 John Watson, a CSM in 1 Royal Anglian, was known to his men as ‘Ringo’. John Watson was a Cambridge man, brought up by a Victorian father and a strong and splendid mother. A big man, he enlisted into the Suffolk Regiment, although as a talented footballer he had already been spotted by the scouts of Tottenham Hotspur. In truth, however, he was always going to be a soldier. That was his wish and, as all of us know, that is where his talents lay.

In 1947 1 Suffolks were serving in Palestine to enforce the British Mandate while the future of Palestine and the creation of an Israeli state were decided. Ship loads of Jewish immigrants were arriving, often starving, and most were being turned back. There was no Israeli state to welcome them. Zionist terrorists started to attack the British authorities. All the neighbouring Arab states fiercely opposed the creation of Israel – a homeland for the Jews. The matter had been referred to the United Nations where it was decided to partition the land in May 1948 when the British mandate ended. On that day the Jewish leader Ben Gurion simply declared a state of Israel.

The 19 year old soldier John Watson had seen the treatment being handed out to the Jews – men, women and children – including those already in Palestine and those held on ships or being sent away. The British knew that the partition of Palestine would lead to a bloodbath (it still is) but decided to withdraw. Watson felt great sympathy with the Jewish underdogs, hated the way they were treated, and decided to join them. With another soldier, John, who took his weapon with him, went ‘over the wall’ and made contact with members of the Jewish Haggenah. That first night he was put into what he described as a cell, by himself, but allowed to keep his weapon. He did not know what would happen, but the next morning Haggenah members came to him saying ‘you say you want to join us, so come on there is work to do’. Thus he joined the newly forming Israeli Army. All four neighbouring Arab states invaded Palestine in order to destroy the new Israeli state. Jerusalem was besieged and blockaded and John was wounded during that battle. The Israelis lacked heavy and medium weapons but from all over the world – the US, Canada, South Africa, Europe, Arab countries – men like John Watson came to fight for Israel, mostly Jews, but some like Watson who were not.

After a short bitter war, throughout which Watson fought, Israel welcomed immigrants from all over the world and, while remaining at all times ready to fight, the Israelis started to form a nation. It was this experience of war which shaped Watson’s whole life. John stayed on in Israel and went to work on an agricultural settlement as a farmer and it was there that he met, fell in love with and married his beloved Ora, the great love of his life – becoming a Jew in order to do so. After 4 years on the settlement they bravely decided to set up a farm by themselves and this they did with a mule, goats, chickens and ducks.

But all this time John was homesick for England and Ora knew it. So in 1954 they took the major decision to return to England and Ora sold her piano to buy 2 tickets on a cargo boat to England. John had told the British Consul in Israel of their plans and when they duly arrived in London they were met by the military authorities. To their surprise and pleasure they were allowed to go to Cambridge for the weekend to see John’s family and introduce Ora.

John was then court martialled, as he knew he would be, and sentenced to a year’s imprisonment of which he served 9 months – 9 months during which Ora lived with and got to know John’s wonderful mother.

And so back to his Regiment, starting back at the very bottom, but quickly working his way up through the ranks. By 1960 he was a Platoon Sergeant with 1 East Anglian in Berlin. His Platoon Commander of that time said of him: ‘he was a tough, determined man, hard as nails with that great quality of being able to draw the best out of everyone around him. He was a natural leader and greatly respected by his soldiers, who all knew better than to step out of line with Watson around’.

It was in Berlin that John and Ora were suddenly given the chance of adopting twin baby girls and to their delight they picked up Carol and Debbie from the transit hostel in Berlin and on that first night put the twins to bed in the top drawers of the Watson chest of drawers. They became their loved and loving daughters. From Berlin he went with the Battalion to British Guiana.

In 1962 John was posted as Acting Colour Sergeant to B Company 4 Royal Norfolk TA in King’s Lynn as their instructor. There were no officers in the Company, only 10 volunteers; and King’s Lynn neither knew nor cared about its TA Company. Enter Watson. Two years later there was a full complement of officers, skilfully and tactfully guided by Watson, 40 volunteers, a full programme of tough training and 150 people of King’s Lynn attending the monthly company dance. All this is typical of John Watson’s leadership and personal example. For his service he was awarded the British Empire Medal.

In 1964 he became CSM of A Company in 1 R ANGLIAN in Aden under the command of Bill Deller – the two had last seen each other in 1947 in Palestine. Bill Deller recalls Watson’s imposing presence, his inability to accept anything but the best and his ever present sense of humour. Indeed Watson’s presence made the company commander’s life very easy.

Continuing his service with 1 R ANGLIAN, John ‘Ringo’ Watson became CSM of B Company in Catterick and moved with them to Londonderry where the troubles were coming to a head. Patrick Stone was Company Commander, Willie Hawkins 2IC and Watson was CSM. In fact Patrick and Willie and their wives recently met for a lunch to remember and talk about John Watson – a worthwhile task. Ringo was at his best on the streets of Londonderry with B Company, whether searching houses, charging down Rossville Street or dodging missiles, his eyes everywhere, quietly offering words of advice. In other words, a tower of strength when things were tough and difficult.

It was while B Company was deployed in the South of the Province that an incident occurred which typified Watson the soldier. A sniper’s bullet entered the rear of the armoured personnel carrier. It shattered, inflicting 14 separate wounds on Ringo’s upper legs. During the flight back to Londonderry by helicopter, instead of lying down as bidden he insisted on trying to extract the pieces of shrapnel with his bayonet. A stretcher party was waiting for him at Ebrington Barracks but, giving them a withering look, he strode unaided across the square to the medical centre.

John Watson served on as B Company Sergeant Major in Cyprus, still playing football for the company on merit, still recruiting by fair means or foul all the best young footballers into B Company as they arrived in the Battalion. But he was never promoted to RSM despite David Thorne’s utmost efforts and to the disappointment of us all. John always knew that his desertion to the Israelis would eventually limit his promotion. But he was not bitter about it, to use Ora’s words ‘because his experiences in Israel had so greatly enriched his life’ and he would have had it no other way. He also found great satisfaction in having done some ‘real soldiering’ with the Haggenah. He had made his bed and he was content to sleep in it.

After leaving the Army, (he left after 29 years after enlisting for 22 years, but of course 7 years did not count), he and Ora and their twins went to Rhodesia for 5 years where John ran the security for a textile company and organised and coached their football team. On return to England he worked in a concrete mixing franchise in Capel St Mary in 1980 and 81, which he did not enjoy. Then in 1981 the job of Sergeant Major to Framlingham College CCF became vacant and General Jack Dye, one of the Governors, made sure Watson was offered the job. Enough to say John Watson took to the job like a duck to water and, for 15 very happy years, the Watsons were part of the Framlingham College family – hence the Guard of Honour at the memorial celebration and the presence of many Framlingham College stalwarts – and of course it was towards the end of his time at Framlingham that John became a member of Cretingham Golf Club and soon became captain.

Now I have set out a brief ‘this is your life’ of John Watson but I have asked myself and many others what it was that made him so special that so many of all ranks and ages came to the Celebration of his Life. Several people have said that ‘without John Watson I wouldn’t be where I am today’. Someone else said that ‘he was the single most influential man in my Army Career’. Another ‘he was an inspiration to me’. Yes, he was tough, he was wise, he was brave. He was also a wonderful family man.

He had that great quality of just being himself and of treating everyone as he found them. He knew just how to handle each individual and to draw out the best in them. His methods were sometimes unorthodox, but the results were always beneficial to both individual and the team. Professor John Sutherland who, as a National Service Platoon Commander, had Watson as his Platoon Sergeant, wrote of him in his book ‘he was the best, the hardest soldier I ever came across and in terms of military morality the most admirable’.

In the last days of his life John insisted that there must be no fuss, he would have been embarrassed by masses of visitors – which there would surely have been – he wanted to die quietly at home among his family, and this he did. Typically, modestly, he wanted just a family funeral so in a way ‘The Celebration of his Life’ that we held was disobeying his wishes. But Ora and her family knew just how many people wanted to come together to celebrate his life, so the event was arranged.

And people came because he was above all the father figure to his men and to his companions. The father who praised when praise was deserved, who encouraged when confidence was failing, who advised when advice was needed, who corrected and disciplined when his high standards were not met, who joked and who enjoyed the company of his fellows. But most of all he was the father who set the example and led from the front. Weren’t we lucky to have known him.

AJGP

Memorial Event for
WO2 (CSM) John ‘Ringo’ Watson BEM

A meeting was held at Cretingham Golf Club in Suffolk on 12 February 2011 to celebrate the life of Company Sergeant Major John ‘Ringo’ Watson BEM. Some two hundred and fifty friends joined John’s family for a moving occasion. An inscribed bench was unveiled by his family, as was a memorial plaque by the Golf Club where John had been captain for many years. Speeches were made by Kyle Harvey, his grandson, Neil Jackson, the owner of the Golf Club and Tony Pollard on behalf of The Regiment, after which a Guard of Honour from Framlingham College CCF fired three volleys. A bugler from 1 R ANGLIAN then played Last Post and Reveille from the 16th Tee, some 200 yards away from the assembled crowd, where the memorial bench and plaque are to be located.

After this ceremony everyone went back to the Club House for refreshments and to sign the Memorial Book which had been presented to his family by Regimental friends. The bar was opened and many stories were told about a man who was held in the highest respect by his comrades from The Regiment, Framlingham College and the Golf Club. A special note of thanks goes to Major Tony Jones who organised the celebration and made sure that everything ran splendidly.

Remembering John Watson

This brief appreciation is the result of a very convivial lunch, (of which John would have approved), when four of his old friends – Patrick and Christine Stone and William and Mig Hawkins – met to remember him and the days long ago when we all served together.

How do you remember a man like John Watson, by common consent one of the finest soldiers to have served in The Regiment since the war? Anecdotes about his early years abound, many now distorted by time. To a new subaltern, he was the man who had fallen in love with a beautiful Israeli girl whilst serving in Palestine, and as a consequence had deserted, to fight for the Hagenah, in the struggle for Israeli independence. Once a settlement of sorts had been achieved, he had surrendered himself to the nearest Guard Room, was Court Marshalled, served his sentence, and in due course returned to The Regiment with Ora, to serve loyally to the end of his service. No wonder young officers held him in such awe.

But there much more to John than this romantic start. My first memory of him was in early 1962, when a confused 1st Battalion had been plucked at no notice from frozen Harwich and dumped into sub tropical Georgetown, where as far as I could see we were expected to fend for ourselves. As Richard Abbott’s platoon sergeant he was in his element, quietly ‘obtaining’ everything from bedding to rations for his platoon, in a way that may not have quite conformed with normal accounting practice, but which ensured ‘his blokes’ had what they needed. This wonderful unselfish independence of spirit stayed with him for life.

By great good fortune I inherited John as my CSM when I took over B Company in Catterick in 1970. Soon afterwards we moved to Derry, where William Hawkins joined us as 2ic, completing, as far as I was concerned, the perfect team. Over the next eighteen months we got to know each other extremely well, not only because of the close proximity of running the Company together, but late at night, slumped over mugs of luke warm tea, exhausted after a long day of reacting to stone throwing mobs, explosions, the rare sniper, complaining locals, not to mention Battalion Headquarters. Our conversations covered a wide canvass, from the human failings that lay at the heart of the Northern Ireland problem, to bringing up our children. John was wonderfully straightforward, with a clear opinion on what was right and wrong, and a pragmatic solution to most things. There have been many times since the Derry days, when I wish I had listened more carefully to him.

I can never remember having to worry about the day to day management of the Company. As far as John was concerned, he was king of the Company Office and that was his job. He did not expect officers, particularly company commanders, to hang around any longer than was absolutely necessary. He had a natural authority, and could deal with a private soldier or Brigadier with equal confidence. I remember returning to the office on many occasions to be greeted by John with, ‘Don’t worry Sir, I’ve sorted the CO out on that point’.

However, his natural habitat was not the office, but wherever the Company was deployed. Whether we were charging down Rossville Street at night, searching houses in William Street, or dodging missiles thrown from the Rossville Flats, it didn’t matter, I knew he would be by my left shoulder, eyes everywhere, and with quiet words of advice as the situation developed. There were many occasions when his natural ability to sum up a situation quickly made the difference between success and failure.

I particularly remember one occasion when B Company had been deployed at very short notice, under command of a Gunner Regiment, to form the outer cordon in a search operation in the heart of the Creggan, an area which was avoided if at all possible. As far as I could see, the operation seemed to have gone reasonably well, but as evening drew near, things became suspiciously quiet. At this point John came up to me and said very quietly, ‘I’m pretty certain the bloody Gunners have gone home and forgotten that we are still here, so Sir, we are stuck in the middle of the Creggan, on our own, with no cover. I think we are going to have to bluff it out’. Which is exactly what we did, withdrawing quietly down the hill, saying a polite good evening to any puzzled local we met on the way.

John was a great soldier, independent, brave, wise, a kind man and a family man who loved his wife and children above all else. As we sat around the lunch table and cast our minds back over all those years, our overwhelming memory was of a father figure, someone to whom we could turn to in good times, or troubled times, and who would always see us right. We are fortunate to have know him, and doubly fortunate to have served with him.

PS and WH