Edwin Watson (footballer)

Edwin Watson
Personal information
Date of birth (1914-05-28)28 May 1914
Place of birth Pittenweem, Scotland
Date of death 12 June 1944(1944-06-12) (aged 30)
Place of death Bay of Biscay, off Brest, German-occupied France
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Markinch Victoria
Dunnikier
Crossgates Primrose
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1936–1937 Partick Thistle (6)
1937–1938 Huddersfield Town 3 (0)
Bradford Park Avenue
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Edwin Watson (28 May 1914 – 12 June 1944) was a professional footballer, who played for Partick Thistle, Huddersfield Town and Bradford Park Avenue. He was killed in the Second World War. He was born in Pittenweem, Fife, Scotland.

Military service and death

Watson served as a flight sergeant in No. 201 Squadron RAF of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. He is known to have served on two missions as an air gunner on a Short Sunderland III conducting anti-submarine sweeps from RAF Pembroke Dock over the Bay of Biscay. On 7 June 1944, Watson's Sunderland located U-955 off Cape Ortegal, Spain and sunk it with depth charges, killing all 50 crew on board the U-boat.

Five days later, on 12 June 1944, the Sunderland encountered U-333, and conducted depth charge raids on it. The Sunderland is thought to have been shot down by flak from the submarine's anti-aircraft guns during the attack, killing everybody on board, including Watson. His body was not recovered from the wreckage, and he is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial.[1][2] In 2021, he was added to the Huddersfield Town 'roll of honour'.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Short Sunderland III: 12 June 1944". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  2. ^ "Sunderland III ML760". aircrewremembered.com. Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  3. ^ 14th name added to Town's 'roll of honour', Huddersfield Town AFC, 19 June 2021
  • Ian Thomas, Owen Thomas, Alan Hodgson, John Ward (2007). 99 Years and Counting: Stats and Stories. Huddersfield Town A.F.C. ISBN 978-0955728105.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)


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