The Watson Memorial was constructed in 1936 by Devonport Borough Council, in remembrance of Alexander Richardson Dickey Watson (c.1878-1917), a major local public benefactor. Its construction was part of a programme of beautification along Devonport's esplanade, converting the landscape from a rocky seashore and place of commercial activity to a site of genteel perambulation and other forms of recreation. The monument was erected on a site that had previously been used as Devonport's main wharf. The wharf was located in the early commercial and industrial centre of Devonport, but had been superseded by an alternative jetty further west used by the Devonport Ferry Company. The latter stimulated the growth of a newer commercial centre in Victoria Road, as Devonport became an increasingly fashionable seaside suburb, with more regular and reliable connections to Auckland. By the 1930s, the former centre focused on Church Street had been connected to the Victoria Road hub by a lengthy sea wall and esplanade, funded partly by a substantial bequest from the locally-born landowner A.R.D. Watson.

A.R.D. Watson and the Watson Memorial

Born in Devonport in circa 1878, A.R.D. Watson was the only child of Alexander Watson and his wife Matilda. Watson senior was a builder/entrepreneur who had purchased and developed extensive lands in the Devonport area, including a residential subdivision overlooking Torpedo Bay. After the death of his parents in 1911 and 1912, A.R.D. Watson came into a considerable inheritance, which included the substantial family home on North Head, Devonport, and the Watson Building, a two-storey commercial building on the southeast corner of the intersection of Wellesley and Queen Streets in central Auckland (since demolished). For some years prior to his death in 1917 at a prematurely young age, he and his Devonport-born wife Wynne Powley, lived the greater part of each year in Sydney where he also had business interests. Watson, reputed to be an excellent mathematician, was one of few qualified actuaries in New Zealand. Although he died in Sydney, Watson's remains were interred in Auckland. He had no descendants.

Watson was a noted public benefactor both before and after his death. While still alive, he had given over the family home, a prominent feature on the headland of North Head, to the Auckland Hospital Board for use as a convalescent home for soldiers wounded in the First World War. He also left half of his sizeable estate to be shared among nine bodies after his death, these being two Presbyterian orphanages (Auckland and Sydney), the Salvation Army (Auckland and Sydney), Dr Barnado's Homes, the St John's Ambulance Association (Auckland), the Sydney Picture Gallery, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland City Council, and Devonport Borough Council. The bequest to Devonport Borough Council was to be used, 'in or towards extending or completing or permanently improving the esplanade along the beach or foreshore as is now started opposite "Ventnor" and in case such esplanade is completed, then in or towards the erection of a permanent ornamental fountain...'. North Head, where Watson's family home was located, overlooked the esplanade.

In May 1935 Devonport Borough Council considered the question of a suitable memorial to Watson whose bequest by that time had yielded ₤4,000 for seafront improvements to King Edward Parade. The King Edward Parade sea wall, commenced in 1902, extended for nearly 2 km east of the wharf in the newer centre of Devonport. In 1928 a new bathing beach with concrete terracing to provide seating for bathers was developed near the rowing club on either side of what was later to become the site of the Watson Memorial on King Edward Parade. The sustained beautification project illustrates an emerging civic pride and desire that the seaside settlement should have an appropriate esplanade for genteel recreation.

The idea of a memorial to commemorate Watson's generosity was raised by December 1934, following major improvement works. In May 1935 the Borough Engineer was asked to prepare an estimate for a proposed memorial lamp and drinking fountain in Watson's memory, to be erected on a site opposite the foot of Church Street. In July 1935 instructions were given for the site to be prepared at an estimated cost of ₤300, but the form of the memorial had changed. Provision was to be made for a 24-inch, three-dial clock (₤80) and drinking fountain (₤15). Funds under the Watson Bequest were to be used as far as possible.

There was some precedent for construction of a clock as a memorial. In 1928 the Borough had erected the Alison Clock on Marine Square - outside the ferry wharf at the foot of Devonport's main street - to commemorate former Mayor and founder of the Devonport Steam Ferry Company (DSFC), Ewen Alison. Alison was influential in shifting the focus of commercial activity in the suburb towards the Devonport Steam Ferry Company wharf from the earlier centre, where the Watson Memorial was to be erected.

Erection and unveiling of the Watson Memorial

The Watson Memorial was built by Devonport Borough Council staff to the design of Borough Engineer, Arthur Griffiths. By January 1936 construction of the horseshoe-shaped retaining wall that would enclose the site to be occupied by the Watson Memorial, was underway. The Works Committee adopted 'Design Number 1' for the memorial on 11 March 1936. At the beginning of September Auckland jeweller A. Kohn Ltd's price of ₤59 was accepted for supply of the clock. Towards the end of September the slave dials for the clock were being constructed and the bronze plaque was being cast. By the end of October all concrete work had been completed and plastering of the column was in hand with the Power Board and the Post and Telegraph Department about to install the wiring for the clock dials, which were due the following week. The electrically-worked clock supplied by A. Kohn Ltd appears to have consisted of a short case pendulum master and a three-faced 600mm outdoor unit which was mounted on the concrete column.

The memorial was unveiled on 25 November 1936 as part of celebrations marking Devonport Borough's fiftieth jubilee. The unveiling ceremony was performed by Mr Watson's widow. A number of his relatives were also present. The Mayor, Mr H.F.W. Meikle gave a short address recalling the generous bequest of the late A.R.D. Watson, pointing out that the extensive improvements that had made King Edward Parade 'one of the finest avenues of its type in the Dominion' had been made possible as a result of Mr Watson's public spiritedness. The memorial was one of several erected along the esplanade in the early to mid 1900s that contributed to the beautification of the seaside suburb. The development of the esplanade was influenced by Victorian and Edwardian tastes for recreation, in which perambulation played a significant role. Similar beautification occurred in seaside resorts elsewhere in New Zealand, as at Marine Parade in Napier and in Petone, Wellington.

Evidently stimulated by the construction of the monument, the erection of public clocks caught the Council's imagination as part of the Borough's golden jubilee celebrations. Towards the end of August 1936 (around the time the cost of the clock mechanism for the Watson Memorial was being considered) a small piece 'Living by the Clock' appeared in the New Zealand Herald. As Devonport was '...a community that lives by catching boats and buses' synchronised timepieces erected at strategic points were seen as appropriate to a suburb dependent on 'time and tide'. The Borough Engineer was to enquire into the probable line and power charges for such an installation. In early October the question of synchronised clocks at strategic points in the Borough was further discussed as a fitting memorial to the jubilee. Prices of installations were received.

Three additional clocks were subsequently erected: at the conjunction of Victoria and Albert Roads (a pole-mounted clock that continues in service); at 87 Vauxhall Road (all that remains is an empty clock case above the south end of the verandah); at King's Store on Lake Road, opposite Old Lake Road (this cube clock sits above the shop verandah on the north side of the Kawerau Avenue/Lake Road intersection and is still in working order); and at Stanley Bay, opposite the entrance to Stanley Bay Park (this clock appears to have been removed). As no mention is made of the clocks at Victoria and Albert Roads, Lake Road and Vauxhall Road in newspaper coverage of Devonport's jubilee celebrations, it is presumed that they were erected slightly later.

Subsequent Use and Modification

Within a few months of the opening, the clock in the Watson Memorial was keeping irregular time, a problem probably caused by an intermittent electrical leak. This necessitated replacement of the line to the clock. Consideration appears to have been given at this time to installing master clocks in each clock, but does not seem to have been pursued further.

An electric clock installation was undertaken in 1953 by Automatic Telephone and Electric Co. (New Zealand) Ltd using their equipment. Time was guaranteed to be within 30 seconds per month and the equipment was not subject to outside interruptions. A new face and glass was required following damage by vandals in 1968. The original clock hands also appear to have been replaced since the 1930s. The Watson Memorial clock was recorded as running slow over three months in the winter of 1978, and in 1980 the dial surround required substantial repairs and the internal mounting plate needed replacement. The three slave units were overhauled and the master was replaced. A continuous 230 volt electricity supply was installed to the tower. A photo cell unit was fitted to switch the clock's internal illumination on during the hours of darkness.

The clock is currently in working order, although the clock face on the south side of the column is missing. North Shore City Council became caretakers of the clock after taking over responsibilities from Devonport Borough Council in 1989. A.R.D. Watson's bequests have continued to be of benefit to the Auckland public, having helped to fund the casting of bronze sculptures in the Auckland Domain to commemorate the centenary of Auckland city in 1940, and the establishment of a Gothic art collection at Auckland Art Gallery in 1965.


Comparisons

Other clocks registered by the NZHPT include: the Victoria Clock Tower, Victoria Street, Christchurch (NZHPT Registration # 3670, Category I historic place) designed by Benjamin Mountfort and later used as a monument for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; War Memorial and Clock Tower, Seymour Square, Blenheim (NZHPT Registration # 243, Category I historic place) which was unveiled in 1928 and serves as Marlborough province's principal monument to residents killed during the First World War; Clock Tower, Railway Road, Hastings Central Mall (NZHPT Registration # 1075, Category I historic place) completed in 1935; Memorial Clock Tower, Hokitika (NZHPT Registration # 5054, Category II historic place) constructed in 1903; Edmonds Clock, Christchurch (NZHPT Registration # 3106, Category II historic place) constructed 1929; Town Clock and War Memorial, Waipawa (NZHPT Registration # 4844, Category II historic place) constructed in 1935; and, Rest Rooms and Town Clock, Havelock North (NZHPT Registration # 4797, Category II historic place).

The clock is one of five surviving public clocks or clock remnants of early twentieth-century date in Devonport, the others being located on Marine Square (Alison Clock, 1928), at the intersection of Victoria and Albert Roads, at the intersection of Lake Road and Old Lake Road, and attached to a shop at 87 Vauxhall Road.