William Farquhar “Bill” Watson (1892 – 1984)
	
Bill Watson was born in Tacoma, Washington to parents Matthew and Martha Grace Watson. His father and older brother travelled into the Yukon in 1897. His mother brought him and his two siblings to Dyea in 1898 and the family crossed over the Chilkoot Pass. They arrived in Atlin in April, returned to Skagway, Alaska in the fall of 1899, moved to Bennett by train in early 1900, and finally settled in Whitehorse.((Yukon Archives, Watson Family fonds, biographical sketch.))

Bill Watson worked as a telegraph operator in a few places including Fort Selkirk from 1910 – 1911.((Yukon Archives, Watson Family fonds, biographical sketch.)) After Selkirk, he was the operator in Whitehorse and in 1915-16, he filled in at Lake Laberge to replace an operator who was drinking too much.((Gord Allison, “Watson Family Yukon Stories.” //Welcome to Yukon History Trails: Stories about Yukon history,// 2020 website: https://yukonhistorytrails.com/2020/03/09/watson-family-yukon-stories/))

Bill enlisted to serve in the First World War in October 1916. He stopped to visit his sister Grace in Vancouver, where she was studying nursing, and met her friend Frances Kipp. After she graduated, Frances came to the Yukon to work as a nurse.((Gord Allison, “Watson Family Yukon Stories.” //Welcome to Yukon History Trails: Stories about Yukon history,// 2020 website: https://yukonhistorytrails.com/2020/03/09/watson-family-yukon-stories/))

Bill Watson was in Bonn, Germany when the war ended and he returned to Whitehorse in June 1919.((Yukon Archives, Watson family fonds, 2017/21 #64 photo caption)) Anna Frances Kipp and Bill Watson were married in 1922 and they had one daughter, Dorothy Jean.((Yukon Archives, Watson Family fonds, biographical sketch.)) They left the Yukon in 1923 and settled in Bellingham, Washington.((Gord Allison, “Watson Family Yukon Stories.” //Welcome to Yukon History Trails: Stories about Yukon history,// 2020 website: https://yukonhistorytrails.com/2020/03/09/watson-family-yukon-stories/))