By Greg Blood

JOHN CHRISTIAN (CHRIS) WATSON

 AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY   

3^rd Prime Minister: 1904

Chris Watson was the Australian Labor Party’s (ALP) first prime minister but his time in the role was very brief – 113 days. Watson predominantly played rugby union and rowed in his youth and twenties. He viewed sport from the realm of muscular christianity – a dominant view of English sport at the time. Watson was foundation patron of the South Sydney Rugby League Club – commencing the link of Labor with this working-class sport. In his post parliamentary life, he was a significant trustee on the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust due to his political and business connections.

Birth: 19 April 1867.  Valparaiso, Chile – Death: 18 November 1941, Sydney, NSW         

Political Appointments

• New South Wales Legislative Assembly Member for Young: 17 July 1894 – 11 June 1901 
• Federal Member for Bland: 30 March 1901 –12 December 1906; Federal Member for South Sydney: 12 December 1906 – 19 February 1910
• Federal Australian Labor Party Leader: 12 June 1901 – 30 October 1907
• Ministries: Treasurer: 17 April 1904 – 18 August 1904
• Prime Minister: 17 April 1904 – 18 August 1904
• Federal Leader of the Opposition: 18 August 1904 – 5 July 1905

John Christian (Chris )Watson (birth name -Johan Cristian Tanck) was born in Valparaíso, Chile and he took his stepfathers’ surname following his mother’s remarriage. Watson grew up in New Zealand and the age of thirteen became an apprentice compositor to the North Otago Times. Even though Watson had limited education, he was an avid book reader. He migrated to Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) in 1886 and employed as a compositor at The Daily Telegraph, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Star. This led him to becoming active in the union movement and becoming NSW Trades and Labour Council President, NSW Labor Party Chair and Australian Labor Federation President.

In 1894, he was elected the member for Young in the NSW Legislative Assembly. At the first federal election in 1901, he was elected the member for Bland in the House of Representatives. The electorate of Bland covered Young and nearby towns. Watson became the first leader of the federal parliamentary Australian Labor Party (ALP) and had significant influence on determining whether the Free Trade or Protectionist parties formed early federal governments.

Watson became prime minister in April 1904 after the ALP withdrew support for the Alfred Deakin government’s Conciliation and Arbitration Bill. But Watson’s government lasted less than four months after it lost a no confidence motion and was replaced as prime minister by George Reid. As leader of the opposition, he was responsible for Deakin becoming prime minister in 1905 for the second time. In 1906, Watson was elected to the South Sydney federal electorate as his seat of Bland was abolished at a redistribution.

Watson retired from federal parliament in 1910 and was expelled from the ALP in 1916 due to his support of ALP prime minister Hughes conscription policy that divided the ALP.

His post parliamentary career included president of the newly established National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) in 1923 and the inaugural chairman on Ampol .[1]

Headon in his extensive biography described Watson’s sporting prowess shortly after he arrived in Sydney:

“here was this stripling newcomer from across the ditch with union nous and experience well beyond his years, who also happened to be a talented cricketer, rower, cyclist and rugby player. Watson particularly enjoyed rugby’s physicality, feeling that ‘no finer or more stirring sight could be imagined than a passing rush by the forwards down a field’. He was good at billiards, brilliant at cards, and he loved a beer and a good yarn.”[2]

In article published in May 1904 described Watson as a “fine athlete and his upright, well-knit figure today bears evidence of the athletic training of his youth.”[3] It went to state that “he was an active member of one of the leading rowing clubs and took part in several races. As a footballer, he played Rugby in the Press Competition of 1892 and was also a fine swimmer and water polo player”. [4]

Watson was an active sportsman into his late twenties and regularly played golf after his retirement from politics.

Rugby Union

Whilst growing up in Otago, New Zealand, Watson played rugby union.  The Sydney Times in 1904, reported Watson’s views on rugby union at the NSW Referees’ Association’s annual picnic in Sydney:

“Said that though it was 18 or 20 years since he had taken an active part as a player, he was much attached to the game. It [Rugby] was one of those games that tended to inculcate manliness and improve the physique of Australians. It would be a sorry day for the country if ever such a pure sport were allowed to deteriorate. At times there was an outcry against the alleged roughness of football by persons who knew very little about it; but in looking round the room he saw a gathering of men who had played the game for years without showing any signs of suffering from it.

Mr. Watson, in comparing the Rugby and Australian game, said that there was no doubt that environment exercised a strong influence in leading persons to believe that the game they were brought up to is the best of all games. But as far as his observation went (and the game of his early youth was Rugby), no finer or more stirring sight could be imagined than a passing rush by the forwards down a field.

But where he thought Rugby was so much superior to the Victorian game was that most of the thirty players were engaged all the time, whereas in the Victorian game the play rested with about half a dozen, the others standing about the field in different directions, and in restless inactivity”[5]

In June 1904, at a reception in welcoming the British Lions rugby team to Australia at the Melbourne Town Hall, The Sydney Morning Herald report on Watson’s address noted that he said:

“the game throughout Australia was not the same and thought it might be possible to modify the rules of both English and Victorian football so that interstate and international matches could take place. He played the rugby game in his youth, and he wished a greater number of the many thousands who looked at matches every Saturday were undergoing the discipline of the game.”

These reported statements suggest that Watson believed in the muscular Christianity virtues of rugby union in developing men – a dominant English view at the time. Also that Watson longed for interstate football rivalry. Interestingly no British Lions rugby games were held in Victoria likely due to the dominance of Australian football in the state.

Rugby League

Watson became the foundation patron of the South Sydney Rugby League Club that was established at meeting at the Redfern Town Hall on 17 January 1908. [9] At the time, Watson was the federal member for South Sydney. Fellow federal ALP politician William “Billy” Hughes was appointed to a similar position with the Glebe Rugby League Club. The rugby league competition in Sydney was established in 1908 due to many rugby union players desire to be recompensed for lost time at work due to injuries.

Watson and Hughes appointments highlight the importance of having a significant political figure to promote a sporting code in the local community and the relationship of rugby league with the working class. Also Watson was willing to accept rugby league even though it was at odds with muscular christianity – the need workers to be compensated for loss of income was more important to the amateur ideals of sport.

Post Prime-Ministership

After leaving Parliament, he was a regular racegoer at Randwick Racecourse. He played golf and was second president of Woollahra Golf Club -a nine hole course established in 1932 and a member of the prestigious Australian Golf Club. It was reported that he played golf up until several months before his death in 1941.[10]

The New South Wales government appointed Watson in 1915 as trustee of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. Due to his political and business connections, Watson became a significant trustee and made deputations to the NSW government particularly in relation to increasing spectator capacity.[11] At the meeting of Trustees on 24 November 1941, Trustees noted the death of Watson on 18 November and resolved their appreciation.[12]

Conclusion

Whilst Watson had an active involvement in sport prior to entering politics, there is no evidence that he influenced the development of sport whilst being a member of the federal and New South Wales parliaments. His time in politics was consumed in developing parliamentary processes and legislation for the new federation and navigating the frequent turnover in federal governments. Watson appears to have viewed sport through the lens of muscular christianity. Post his political career, Watson was involved in sport administration through roles with Woollahra Golf Club and Sydney Cricket Ground Trust.

References

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[1] Online biographies – Australian Dictionary of Biography,  National Archives of Australia, Museum of Australian Democracy,  David Headon, Chris Watson (1867-1941), Australia’s Third Prime Minister – a Great Pioneer. Australian Parliamentary Library, 2022,            

[2] David Headon, p.14

[3] Prime Minister Watson. Truth (Brisbane) 15 May 1904, p. 3. 8

[4] Prime Minister Watson 1904, p.3

[5] Mr. J. C. Watson On Football. Sunday Times (Sydney, NSW), 10 April 1904, p.8 6

[6] Welcomed At Melbourne. The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 June 1904.p.122

[7] Aquatics. The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 November 1894, p.6 

[8] Rowing. The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 1900, p. 10

[9] Rugby Football League, The Australian Star, 18 January 1908, p.2 4

[10] First Labor P.M. Dead. Daily Mirror, 18 November 1941. p 5 

[11] Cricket Ground. The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 February 1934, p. 10. 9

[12] Information supplied by Geoff Armstrong who is researching the history of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, January 2024