Philip Watson

Sir Philip Alexander Watson
Sir Philip Alexander Watson
	Vice Admiral
Commands held	HMS Collingwood
Battles/wars	World War II Arctic convoys;
Awards	Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order
Other work	Royal National Lifeboat Institution

vice-admiral

.

Naval career

Watson was born on 7 October 1919 at 93 Limestone Road,

Arctic convoys from the United Kingdom to the northern ports of the Soviet Union—Arkhangelsk and Murmansk; in HMS Nelson (Assistant Torpedo Officer) and was at the German surrender at Trondheim when serving in HMS Berwick

as Torpedo Officer. He was then transferred to the Royal Navy as a lieutenant in 1946, and served as Naval Assistant to Admiral Bateson.

Watson served with the

Admiralty in London. A spell at HMS Collingwood as assistant to the training commander followed, with Watson being promoted to lieutenant-commander. He spent two years with the radio section at Malta Dockyard, before becoming electrical officer in HMS Decoy in 1954.^[2]

Watson was promoted to commander in 1955, and returned to working at the Admiralty.

On 11 December 1948 he married Jennifer Beatrice Tanner and they have two daughters and a son.

Watson spent two years from 1957 as Electrical Officer on board HM Yacht Britannia,^[2] for which he was made a member of the Royal Victorian Order. He followed this with a move to Chatham Dockyard where from 1959 he was in command of the electrical shops and weapon section.^[2] He went to sea again aboard HMS Lion in 1962, where he served as Weapon Electrical Engineer Officer. He was promoted to captain and joined the Ship Department at Bath where he became involved in the designs of submarines, aircraft carriers and commando ships.^[2] In 1967 he became captain of HMS Collingwood, but by 1969 he was back at Bath as deputy director of Engineering (Electrical) in the Ship Department.^[2]

He was promoted to Rear-Admiral and made Director-General Weapons (Naval) in 1970, and later promoted again to Vice-Admiral and given the post of Chief Naval Engineer Officer in 1974.

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974 and retired from the navy in March 1977.^[3] He became chairman of Marconi Radar Systems

between 1981 and 1985.

Before his retirement to Oxfordshire he was a member of the Army and Navy Club and the Bath and County Club. He remained active in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the City of Oxford Society of Model Engineers.

He died on 8 December 2009.

Honours and awards

	Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)	1974
	Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO)
	Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO)	For Services onboard HMY Britannia
	1939–45 Star
	Atlantic Star
	Arctic Star	2017 (Posthumously)
	France and Germany Star	with 'Atlantic' clasp
	Italy Star
	War Medal 1939–1945

References

^ The Watsons of Great Yarmouth, Garth Watson, Lonsdale Press, Wallingford, 1994
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
^ "No. 47184". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 March 1977. p. 4281.

[1] The Watsons of Great Yarmouth, Garth Watson, Lonsdale Press, Wallingford, 1994

[lh-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives

[3] "No. 47184". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 March 1977. p. 4281.

[2]

[3]