B157616 Lance Corporal Clarence West Watson was born in Toronto, Ontario, on 11 February 1925. He was the son of Neil Butchart Watson (who served in the 23rd Battery, CFA in WWI)  and Isabella Mowatt Christie, and had one sister, Margaret.

He left school at age 15 having completed Grade 7, and attended Riverdale Presbyterian Church.

Watson was a ladder maker with McFarlane-Gendron Company when he enlisted with the 2nd Battalion (Reserve) of The Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada on 21 April 1943. That summer he spent two weeks training at the annual Niagara Camp.

On 6 January 1944, he transferred to the active service army and trained at Brantford and Camp Borden. On 19 July, he arrived in the United Kingdom and a month later in France. On 22 August, he was posted to The Queen’s Own Rifles but on 16 October he was wounded with a bullet to his left arm.

He returned to the QOR on 21 November but was injured again with badly burned hands caused by a grenade in mid-December 1944. At some point, he was appointed Lance Corporal and returned to the QOR on 26 January 1945.

Lance Corporal Watson was killed in action in Germany during Operation Blockbuster on 26 February 1945, aged 20. He is buried in Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery, grave reference VIII. D. 11. His family had the following engraved on his marker:

HE DIED
THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE