Rex was born to John and Lily Watson in Woolacombe in North Devon, UK on, it is believed, 17 October 1909. Little is known about his early years except that he succeeded in his secondary education, passing the Junior and Senior Cambridge levels.
Towards the end of 1927, while in Essex, he became aware of opportunities in Australia through the Dreadnought Youth Migration Scheme. At 18 years of age, Rex successfully applied to the scheme, and embarked on the SS Baradine on 25 January 1928. Rex was one of 40 Dreadnought Boys on the ship which berthed in Sydney on 15 March 1928. Of that group, Rex and three other boys were sent to Wollongbar Agricultural Experiment Farm for farm training.
Also on the Baradine, were Fred and Hettie Kille, their daughter Vera (17), and son Maurice (13). They were heading for Lismore in the NSW Northern Rivers area. During the 48-day voyage, Vera and Rex got to know one another in what was later described as a 'mild shipboard romance'. There is little doubt that Rex later made known his preference for Wollongbar (the nearest training place to Lismore).
Following several months of training at Wollongbar, Rex was placed in farmwork, away from the Lismore area for several years. Mrs Kille had a dairy farm at Chelmsford (20 km NW of Lismore) where Rex and Vera lived after they were married on 29 March 1934. Then, in 1935 it was time to move on.
Their first move was to Maclean on the Clarence River, and then on to Perth WA. While there, Rex was injured in a motorcycle accident, resulting in a slight limp. After two years away, the couple moved back east to Casino. In November 1939, Vera’s parents had a car accident - her mother died. Her father needed care, and so Rex and Vera moved to Lismore to live with him. Rex continued to work as a car salesman in Casino.
Rex decided to join the Royal Australian Air Force and was enrolled in the Air Force Reserve, for air crew, on 29 May 1940. To be young enough for pilot training, Rex dropped his age by five years (as well as hiding his limp)! Rex went back to life in Lismore until he was called up for service on 8 November 1940. After initial training at Bradfield Park in northern Sydney, Rex was selected to do flying training at the No.4 Elementary Flying Training School at Mascot Airport, where the DH 82 Tiger Moth was the basic training plane. Graduating on 3 April 1941, Rex went on to the No.2 Service Flying Training School at Forest Hill, near Wagga Wagga NSW. Selected for single-engine training he began conversion to flying Wirraways. Rex completed both service and advanced levels, received a Flying Badge (his ‘Wings’), was classified Airman Pilot on 22 August 1941, and promoted to Sergeant. Rex was then on his way to UK for operational training on Spitfires.
After a slow trip via North America, Rex reached England on 21 December 1941 - nearly 14 years since he left as a Dreadnought Boy. After two months in Shropshire, Rex was sent to RAF Llandow in South Wales, where he flew Spitfires for the first time. In May 1942 he was finally posted an operational Squadron, No. 457 RAAF in Surrey. Here he flew the latest model Mark V Spitfire, just before the squadron, with No. 452 RAAF and No. 54 RAF squadrons, were shipped south to Australia.
With the Japanese attacks on Darwin, and the advance of Japanese forces, these three squadrons of Spitfires were needed for the air defence of Northern Australia. Subsequently, their pilots and ground crew reported to Richmond RAAF Base west of Sydney, and formed No. 1 Fighter Wing under the direct command of Clive 'Killer' Caldwell. When the reassembled new Spitfires finally arrived and familiarisation was complete, the Fighter Wing was transferred to the Northern Territory. Rex Watson was promoted to Flight Sergeant just as the Wing was ready for action there on 1 February 1943.
Rex Watson (AWM Photo NWA0123)
Rex was in the North until January 1944. In that time attacks occurred about every three weeks, and he was able to play a significant part in the defence of the Darwin area. From the 13 attacks, he destroyed two enemy planes, shared destruction of another and damaged another two. He was one of the most successful pilots in No. 1 Fighter Wing. Early in this time, a photo of Rex in the cockpit of 'Jiminy Cricket' (his Spitfire), was used in a recruiting poster. Other publicity followed his successes. Promotions continued for Rex, first as Pilot Officer in May and then Flying Officer in November 1943. However, the sting of war was always present. On one mission in July 1943, the three other pilots in his section were lost, while he was diverted by radio failure. The loss would hit Rex hard.
In January 1944, Rex was posted to No. 2 Operations Training Unit at Mildura. Here Rex instructed new pilots on Wirraways. This continued after he was transferred to No 8 OTU at Parkes in July 1944. His wife Vera was able to join him while he was at Parkes, for their longest time together during the war. However, after a year as an instructor Rex Watson was keen to get back into action. Somehow, he gained a posting to No. 452 Spitfire Squadron which was based on Morotai, midway between New Guinea and the Phillippines, arriving there in early April 1945. No. 452 Squadron was conducting ground attack missions against Japanese camps and shipping. In his short time there, the now Flight Lieutenant Rex Watson needed every bit of his previous experience, against enemy fighters.
The Squadron participated in the Borneo Campaign during the final months of the war. The Spitfires commenced operations from Labuan on 19 June, with the primary roles of providing air support to Allied troops in the area and air defence for the island. The squadron’s last action occurred on 10 August 1945 but Rex had, just then, been admitted into Brisbane’s Greenslopes Hospital. He was there for the next six weeks, before returning to No. 3 Personnel Depot at Sandgate, Brisbane, and his discharge from the RAAF on 19 December 1945.
Now Rex faced peacetime life. There were opportunities in the community, and on 19 January 1946, he was elected as an Alderman on Lismore City Council. He had been nominated by the Returned Soldiers League. He resumed in car sales, and, he returned to live with Vera and her father Fred in Barham St. East Lismore.
After his wife’s death, Fred’s relationship with Vera had become close and dependent. There were tensions as Rex sought to find his place in the home, and life started to go downhill for him. He began to miss Council commitments, his place on Council being declared vacant in early 1947. He changed from selling cars to selling insurance, which meant often being away from home as he covered his area of the Far North Coast of NSW. Then Rex headed for Sydney.
In Sydney, Rex seriously needed help, and by mid-1947 had been admitted to the Repatriation General Hospital at Concord for physical and psychiatric care. By April 1948, Rex was boarding, but in accommodation unhelpful for either his mental condition or general health. Apart from a Newcastle Sun photograph on 25 June 1953 of Rex with Clive Caldwell and others, at the Air Force rooms in Newcastle the previous evening, details of his life are unclear. On 27 August 1959, the family were informed of his death in Sydney. He had taken his own life.
Like thousands of returned service personnel, Rex Watson showed the symptoms of what, today, we know as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although he received treatment, it could not break his downward spiral. Yet his story needs to be known – the Dreadnought Boy, the Farmer, the Fighter Pilot and Ex-serviceman!
(Much of the material for this story was sourced from an unpublished family memoir ‘Searching for Uncle Rex’ written by his nephew Brian Kille.)