Sergeant Watts was the son of John and Florence May Watts of Market Harborough. He was born in Canterbury on January 3rd 1911. As a boy he was a chorister at St Hugh's Church and later started work at Looms in Bath Street. On the 5th December 1936, he and his fiancée were married at St Nicholas' Church. He was a keen sportsman, who suffered a broken leg playing football. The result of the injury initially barred him from flying duties, but he nonetheless volunteered for RAF aircrew and persevered until accepted for training in 1942. He became an air gunner and his crew ultimately formed part of the elite Pathfinder Force, which flew ahead of the main bomber squadrons and both identified and marked the targets. He served on 429 Squadron RCAF and, later, on 405 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. On his final bombing raid over Germany 405 Squadron's Lancasters were delayed some 5 hours at take-off because of a runway collision. This delay forced the bombers to take a more direct route to Berlin, far different from the circuitous one that had been planned to avoid anti-aircraft fire and night fighters. The route was exactly the same as the one taken on the previous night which meant that many of the enemy fighters and control units were still in place. Sgt Watts' aircraft was captained by a young Canadian stand-in instead of Jack Hollingworth, the crew's regular pilot, and was shot down on the way to the target. On that night, 1st/2nd January 1944, a total of twenty eight Lancasters were lost on the raid, many over Holland. Sergeant Watts left a widow, Kathleen Mary Watts, a 6 year old son and an 11 month old daughter.