John Watt (politician)

Watt was born in Edinburgh, Mid-Lothian, Scotland. He was the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton Watt, a Royal Navy officer, and his wife Margaret (née Gilchrist). Watt graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1840, and in 1842, he emigrated to Sydney via the Benares. ==Early career==

Watt was appointed a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council in September 1861, and he resigned on leaving for England in March 1866. He was reappointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council in October 1874. In 1877, he presented the sum of £1000 to the University of Sydney to found an exhibition for students from primary schools. He presided over the Royal Commission on Military Defences of 1881. ==Later career==

He was the Commissioner for New South Wales at the International Exhibitions of Philadelphia (1876), Paris (1878), Sydney (1879), Amsterdam (1883) and at Calcutta (1883–84). In 1884, he was invited to the United Kingdom to join the Executive Committee of the Imperial Federation League. In 1890, he forfeited his New South Wales Legislative Council seat due to absence in England. Watt died in Bournemouth, Dorset on 28 September 1897. ==Family==

Watt married Mary Jane Holden, daughter of Australian politician George Kenyon Holden; they had five sons and five daughters, including: • Lieutenant Colonel Walter "Toby" Oswald Watt, , who was a celebrated aviator. • Ernest Alexander Stuart Watt (born c. 1875 in Sydney) married Annie Elizabeth Caroline Weston on 3 April 1900. They divorced, and on 22 February 1912, Watt married Marie Margeurite Beerbohm, 22-year-old niece of Max Beerbohm. They also divorced, and he married again to 23-year-old Ruth Edmunds Massey on 2 September 1929. :*Susan Gai Watt, , daughter of Ernest and Ruth, married Commander Sir Laurence Whistler Street. She was the first female chair of the Eastern Sydney Health Service (later amalgamated with Illawarra). ==References==