Oswald Watt
Walter Oswald Watt, OBE, was an Australian aviator and businessman. The first Australian to qualify for a Royal Aero Club flying certificate, in 1911, Watt joined the French Foreign Legion as a pilot on the outbreak of World War I. A recipient of France’s Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre, and twice mentioned in despatches during the war, Watt was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. In 1921, at the age of forty-three, he died by accidental drowning at Bilgola Beach, New South Wales.
About Oswald Watt in brief
Walter Oswald Watt, OBE, was an Australian aviator and businessman. The first Australian to qualify for a Royal Aero Club flying certificate, in 1911, Watt joined the French Foreign Legion as a pilot on the outbreak of World War I. A recipient of France’s Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre, and twice mentioned in despatches during the war, Watt was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1919. He left the military to pursue business interests in Australia, and was lauded for his generosity to other returned airmen. In 1921, at the age of forty-three, he died by accidental drowning at Bilgola Beach, New South Wales. He is commemorated by the Oswald Watt Gold Medal for outstanding achievement in Australian aviation, and a Oswald Watt Fund at the University of Sydney. He was the youngest son of a Scottish-Australian merchant and politician, who moved to Sydney when he was one year old. His Australian-born mother, Mary Jane, died when she was one and shortly afterwards the family relocated to Sydney. Watt’s family was wealthy, and he was able to establish himself as a grazier by purchasing several cattle stations in NewSouth Wales and Queensland. He married Muriel Williams at St. John’s Anglican Church in Toorak, Victoria; the couple had one son. In 1913 he was divorced on the grounds of “misconduct with actress Ivy Schilling, and lost custody of his son in the judgment.
He then went to Egypt, where he purchased and practised flying a Blériot I monoplane; while there he met leading French aviators Louis Bléane and Roland Garros. In May 1914, Watt left Egypt with his aeroplane and took up employment at the factory in Paris, outside Bucfield, outside Paris. This gesture was widely referred to as ‘Capaine Fired’ by his colleagues in the Militaire Aviation section of the Foreign Legion. In March 1912, Watt recommended a location in Canberra near the Royal Military College, Duntroon, as a base for the Army’s proposed Central Flying School. Owing to its altitude and nearby mountainous terrain, the site was rejected by the school’s nominated commanding officer, Lieutenant Henry Petre, to become the area suitable for seaplanes as well as land-based aircraft. The site was eventually chosen 297 hectares at Point Cook, Victoria, which would become the birthplace of Australian military aviation. Watt also advocated manufacturing foreign-designed aircraft under licence in Australian, but this would not be pursued until after World War I. In October 1913, he was appointed a partner in the family shipping firm. He died in a car crash in Sydney in 1921, aged forty-two, and is survived by his wife Muriel and their one-year-old son.
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