Name
Kenneth Murray Watt
4 December 1896
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
01/10/1917
20
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
Bedfordshire Regiment
3rd Bn. attd. 1st/5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War and Victory medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
GAZA WAR CEMETERY
XXXII. A. 2.
Israel and Palestine (including Gaza)
Headstone Inscription
THY WILL BE DONE
UK & Other Memorials
Berkhamsted Town Memorial, St Peter's Church Memorial, Berkhamsted, Berkhamsted Collegiate School, Berkhamsted
Pre War
Kenneth Murray Watt was born on 4 December 1896 in Rosemount, Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of Robert and Charlotte Watt and one of five children, although his younger sister Jean died in infancy. His parents were living in Shanghai when they married in 1890 and his siblings were born in China.
He was educated at Clifton Bank School, St Andrews, Fife, followed by Berkhamsted School, Herts where he was a keen sportsman and won the Berkhamsted School Sports Champion Cup in 1914.
His father died in 1907 in Hong Kong and on the 1911 Census Kenneth was living with his widowed mother and siblings Bertha and John at Capri, Park View Road, Berkhamsted, where his mother was said to be living on 'private means'.
He was on the staff of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai Banking Company.
Wartime Service
Kenneth enlisted on 30 September 1916 and joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps as Private 9668 . He was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant in May 1917 and served with the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, (being attached to the 1/5th (Territorial) Battalion). The following August he was sent with the Expeditionary Force to Egypt and Palestine.
He was wounded while on night patrol duty at 3.00 a.m. and died of his wounds on 1 October 1917. He is buried in Gaza War Cemetery.
Additional Information
His mother obtained probate of his estate in London on 22 February 1918, with effects of £140 2s 9d. She received a war gratuity of £5 and pay owing of £59 0s 0d.
Acknowledgments
Brenda Palmer
Jonty Wild