Alan Stewart Watt

Background

Alan Stewart Watt was born on April 13, 1901, in Croydon, New South Wales, Australia. He was the ninth of ten children of George Watt and his wife Susan Stewart Robb.

Education

Alan Stewart Watt studied at Sydney Boys High School. In 1921 he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Sydney. In 1924 Watt obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oriel College, Oxford. In 1960 he gained a Master of Arts degree from this college.

Career

In 1925 Alan Stewart Watt traveled to Germany on a Bishop Fraser scholarship. Employed first as an education tutor (1928-1932) for workers at the British Tobacco Co. Ltd, he became an associate to Justice Sir Percival Halse Rogers of the New South Wales Supreme Court and was admitted to the Bar on May 25, 1932.

Watt was recruited to the fledgling Australian Department of External Affairs in December 1936 and made permanent in the Commonwealth Public Service on April 26, 1937. Profiting from staff shortages, relative maturity, and first-hand knowledge of Germany, he made his mark during the Munich crisis in 1938.

In 1940-45 Watt was the first secretary in the Australian legation in Washington, DC, where he served in succession three distinguished chiefs, R. G. (Baron) Casey, Sir Owen Dixon, and Sir Frederic Eggleston. There, and at the early meetings of the United Nations, he formed an unfavorable opinion of the minister for external affairs from 1941, H. V. Evatt - a view that hardened into a conviction that he must not be elected prime minister. Watt seemed nevertheless to have harbored hopes that Evatt would appoint him, in recognition of his seniority, to head the department; instead, Watt was sent well away, to Moscow, where he served as minister (1947-48) and ambassador (1949-1950).

When the Australian Labor Party was defeated in December 1949, Watt’s appointment as secretary (1950-1954) of the Department of External Affairs was generally anticipated, but there was a nerve-wracking period of six months before he was promoted. From 1954-1956 Watt was an Australian commissioner in Singapore, a position with regional responsibilities, created especially for him. From 1956 to 1960 he was an Ambassador to Japan. From 1960 to 1962 Watt was ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Retiring in 1962, Watt was a visiting fellow (1962-82) in the department of international relations, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, and the director (1963-1969) of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, to which he gave a high profile. He was a director (1964-1973) of the Canberra Times.

After spending most of his professional life in the diplomatic services of his government in Australia, Alan Watt began writing. In 1964 he published his Australian Defence Policy 1951-63, his first work. In the same year, he also published Changing Margins of Australian Foreign Policy. Three years later, Watt wrote The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy, 1938-1965.

In 1972 Watt completed his book Australian Diplomat: Memoirs. He was seventy years old at the time of publication and retired from government service. In the book, Watt covers the twenty-five years he spent in the United States, the Soviet Union, Singapore, Japan, and Germany. During those years, he witnessed the negotiations leading to the Anzus Security Pact of 1951 between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States, as well as the organization of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) in 1954.

Achievements

• Alan Stewart Watt is best remembered for his service in several government positions, including the first Australian Ambassador and the Australian minister in Moscow. In 1952 he became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and was titled Knight Bachelor in 1954.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Evolution of Australian Foreign Policy 1938-1965 1967
  • Australian Diplomat: Memoirs of Sir Alan Watt 1972

Personality

Small, of slight build, Alan Stewart Watt was hard-working and secretive.

Interests

• literature, music

Connections

On December 19, 1927, Alan Stewart Watt married Mildred Mary Wait. They had three sons and a daughter. In 1983 his wife died.

Father:

George Watt

Mother:

Susan Stewart Robb Watt

late spouse:

Mildred Mary Wait

Son:

John Watt

Acquaintance:

Peter Dunstan Hastings

Acquaintance:

John Charles George Kevin

colleague:

Frederic Eggleston

colleague:

Owen Dixon

colleague:

Richard Casey

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2010