Profiling Andrew Watson: CHS Headmaster 1938 - 1945

Did you know that Andrew Watson was the first principal of Canberra High School?  Watson was a distinguished scientist and was part of the team that Mawson led to Antarctica.


Andrew Dougald Watson (1885-1962) was born at New Lambton, near Newcastle in New South Wales.  He was the fourth son of nine children, of Scottish-born parents William Watson, miner, and his wife Jane, née Thomson.

After attending primary school at Newcastle, Andrew attended Maitland Boys' High School. He was a pupil-teacher at Hamilton (1901) and New Lambton (1902), and was awarded a teacher's scholarship to Fort Street Training School, Sydney, in 1905. Following several teaching appointments, he received a scholarship, initially in arts, to the University of Sydney (B.Sc., 1913) in 1908, where he studied geology, chemistry and biology.


An accomplished sportsman, Watson represented New South Wales at baseball in 1907-11, and in 1914 when he played against visiting teams from the United States of America. He was a first-grade cricketer for the University in 1910-11 and North Sydney in 1918-19.


Watson joined (Sir) Douglas Mawson's 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition as a geologist and photographer. He spent almost a year in 1912-13 in the group of eight led by Frank Wild, at the Queen Mary Land or Western Base. There he trained the party's dogs and dug a shaft to study the glacial ice. He also studied glacial effects on the landscape and accessible rock such as the Hippo Nunatak. In the summer expeditions, Wild, A. L. Kennedy, C. T. Harrisson and Watson explored to the east, but broken ice hindered their mapping of the coast. A promontory on David Island was named Watson Bluff. In December Watson was rescued from a crevasse: 'in an instant I found myself dangling at rope's end, fully fifteen feet, into a yawning chasm, with sheer walls'.


Watson married Esther Enid Godfrey, to whom he had become engaged before leaving for the Antarctic, in May 1913 at St Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Sydney. He lectured in geology at the University of Adelaide in 1913, then returned to the New South Wales Department of Public Instruction the next year as a science teacher at Sydney Boys' High School. A long period followed at North Sydney Boys' High School, first as science master and then as deputy-headmaster. He was headmaster at Glen Innes (1933-35), Bowral (1935-37), Canberra (1938-45) and Homebush Boys' (1946-49) high schools.

Respected by staff and students, Watson set the tone in his schools. About 6 ft (183 cm) tall and of solid build, he wore spectacles and an academic gown at school. He was 'a very dignified man', courteous and quietly spoken but aloof and austere. A Canberra High School colleague commented, 'Andy went southward ho with Mawson and he hasn't thawed out yet'. Watson died on 9 January 1962 at Cremorne, Sydney. His wife and son survived him.

Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography.  (http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/watson-andrew-dougald-13237)