Archibald Watson (mayor)

Archibald Watson was briefly the Lord Mayor of Brisbane in 1931. Watson had previously been Mayor of Toowong before the 1925 merger of the Brisbane councils.

Archibald Watson
2nd Lord Mayor of Brisbane
In office
24 February 1931 – 11 May 1931
Preceded byWilliam Jolly
Succeeded byJohn William Greene
Personal details
Born(1874-10-22)22 October 1874
Dundee, Scotland
Died25 February 1941(1941-02-25) (aged 66)
Brisbane, Queensland
NationalityAustralian
Political partyUnited Australia Party
Other political
affiliations		Nationalist Civic Party

Personal life

Archibald Watson was born on 22 October 1874 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland, the son of George Watson and his wife Mary Ann Gilruth (née Taylor).[1]

He married Maud May Clark in Brisbane on 4 April 1901.[2]

Archibald Watson died on 25 Feb 1941 aged 66 years following a long illness.[2][3] He was buried in Toowong Cemetery.[4][5]

The grave of Archibald Watson at Brisbane's Toowong Cemetery.

Public life

Archibald Watson was the Chairman of the Toowong Fire Brigade, which built a fire station in Jephson Street, Toowong, in 1919.[5]

Archibald Watson was (briefly) the last mayor of Town of Toowong prior to its amalgamation into Greater Brisbane in 1925. On the last election for Toowong, held on Saturday 12 April 1924, Watson was elected Mayor, 2884 votes to 2278 votes for his opponent,A. H. Fisher, in the race to replace Charles Patterson, for a term that lasted less than a year.[6]

The elections for an amalgamated Brisbane City Council were held on 21 February 1925. At the election where William Jolly was the popularly elected Lord Mayor, Watson like Jolly running for the United Party, won the ward of Toowong in a landslide, winning 4,607 to 2103 votes. He served as an alderman for Toowong between 1926 and his election loss in 1931. In April 1926, Hugh Russell the Deputy Mayor and Alderman for Toombul resigned to run for a seat in the State Assembly. Watson was voted in as his replacement as Deputy Mayor. Upon William Jolly's mid-term retirement in early 1931, Watson was then duly elected by a majority of Alderman Lord Mayor for a brief period between 24 February and 11 May 1931.[5]

While on the Brisbane City Council, Archibald Watson served on the following committees:[7]

  • Finance Committee 1925–1930
  • Tenders & Stores Committee 1925–1931
  • Parks & Recreation Committee 1925–1927 (Chairman)
  • Town Planning & Housing Committee 1925 (Chairman)
  • General Purposes Committee 1925
  • Transit Committee 1926–1931 (Chairman)
  • Licensing Committee 1926–1937
  • Markets & Miscellaneous Committee 1926–1927
  • Resumptions Committee 1926–1927
  • Electric Light & Powerhouse Committee 1928–1931 (Chairman)
  • Water Supply & Sewerage Committee 1929, 1931

Later life and death

After his landslide 1931 election defeat, Watson was never elected to Brisbane City Council again. After the formation of the anti-Labor Citizens' Municipal Organisation, Watson unsuccessfully sought to be nominated as the CMO Lord Mayoral candidate, with the incumbent John William Greene being selected. Watson was however successful in obtaining the CMO nomination for the Toowong Ward for the 1937 election,[8] which he failed to win against conservative independent Harry Massey.

He died, in 1941, aged 66 years after a long illness.

See also

References
  1. Scotland Statutory Register of Births
  2. Queensland Registrar-General's Index of Births, Deaths & Marriages
  3. "Former Mayor Of Toowong Dead". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. 26 February 1941. p. 11. Retrieved 25 October 2012 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. "Archibald Watson". Grave Location Search. Brisbane City Council. Archived from the original on 5 June 2012. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  5. "Toowong Cemetery: Brisbane Mayors" Archived 18 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Friends of Toowong Cemetery Association Inc, viewed 19 June 2010
  6. "HONOURS EVEN". The Brisbane Courier. 14 April 1924. p. 11. Retrieved 11 August 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. Brisbane City Council Archives
  8. "TO FIGHT CIVIC ELECTIONS". The Courier-Mail. Brisbane. 1 March 1934. p. 13. Retrieved 11 August 2015 – via National Library of Australia.

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