Thomas Colclough Watson

He led his men back into the burning village despite wounds.

Thomas Colclough Watson was born at Velsen in the Netherlands on 11 April 1867. Educated at Louth and abroad, he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers in 1888 and served with the Bengal Sappers and Miners. He married Edythe Welchman in 1892.

At Bilot in the Mamund Valley on the night of 16-17 September 1897, Watson gathered a small party and attacked enemy positions in a dark, burning village. Wounded and driven back, he attempted another assault and withdrew only after being struck again and severely wounded. His endurance earned the Victoria Cross, presented in June 1898.

He continued in engineering and military works appointments in India, becoming a lieutenant-colonel in 1914. During the Mesopotamian campaign in 1915 he served as commander of Royal Engineers with the 12th Indian Division. Illness forced his return to Britain that June. He never fully recovered and died in London on 15 June 1917. His ashes were placed at Golders Green Crematorium.

Official Victoria Cross citation

This Officer, on the 16th September, 1897, at the village of Bilot, in the Mamund Valley, collected a few men of the Buffs (East Kent Regiment) and of No. 4 Company, Bengal Sappers and Miners, and led them into the dark and burning village to dislodge some of the enemy who were inflicting loss on our troops. After being wounded and driven back, he made a second attempt to clear the village, and only desisted after a second repulse and being again hit and severely wounded.

The London Gazette of 20 May 1898, Numb. 26968, p. 3165