Researching Ray Watson

He was born in Garden City, Kansas and died in Quincy, Illinois. At the age of thirteen lost his right hand in a shooting accident. Was occasionally referred to (erroneously) as "the one-arm wonder" Attended Kansas State where he is remembered as the first "Kansas Miler"

In 1920 he finished eighth in the 3000 metre steeplechase competition. Four years later he finished seventh in the 1500 metres event. At the 1928 Olympics he finished ninth in the 800 metres competition.

Watson was an avid stamp collector his entire life. He attended the local Methodist Church and became a preacher there.

Watson's first wife, Alison, with whom he had four children, died in 1968.

Watson became a barrister and advised the Commonwealth government as part of a committee on the reform of the Matrimonial Clauses Act 1956, which eventually became the Family Law Act 1975. He rose to sit as a judge on the first Family Court in the 1970s, where he advocated the priority of children's welfare and no-fault divorce.

In 1984, a bomb attack on their home injured Watson and killed his second wife Pearl. On 29 July 2015, 68-year-old Leonard John Warwick was arrested by detectives at Campbelltown, New South Wales over the murder of Pearl, and three other Family Court related murders between 1980 and 1985, including the shooting death of fellow judge David Opas. On 23 July 2020, Warwick was found guilty of the murder of Pearl, Opas and another bombing murder. He was also found guilty of numerous other offences including other bomb incidents.

Watson was contributing to legal books until he suffered a series of strokes and a brain haemorrhage in July 2003, which impacted on his mental acuity, and on 19 October 2003 he suffered head injuries in a fall and was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital.

His third wife, Esme, died in 2009.

Watson died on 26 October 2010.