William Henry Lowe Watson

Born in Westminster, London, on August 3, 1891, he served in the First World War first as a motorcycle dispatch rider and later in the Tank Corps. Contemporary book and author records connect him with two best-known wartime memoirs, Adventures of a Motorcycle Despatch Rider During the First World War and A Company of Tanks.

Accounts of his life describe him as exceptionally tall and note that he was decorated for gallantry during the war. After the war, he worked at the Ministry of Labour. He died of pneumonia on December 6, 1932, at just 41 years old.

What makes his writing memorable is its immediacy: instead of distant military history, his books give readers the feeling of moving through the confusion, danger, and strange routines of wartime service alongside the men who lived it.