Ada Watson
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Ada Watson
| honorific_suffix =
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| office = Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia
| term_label = In role
| term_start = 27 April 1904
| term_end = 18 August 1904
| predecessor = Pattie Deakin
| successor = Flora Reid
| birth_name = Ada Jane Low
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1855|2|4|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Bexley, Kent, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1921|7|18|1855|2|4|df=yes}}
| death_place = Paddington, New South Wales, Australia
| death_cause = Pneumonia
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| spouse = {{marriage|Chris Watson|1889}}
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Ada Jane Watson (née Low; 4 February 1855{{spaced ndash}}18 July 1921)[http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/fast-facts.aspx National Archives of Australia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125111001/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/fast-facts.aspx |date=25 November 2017 }}. Retrieved 10 May 2019 was the wife of Chris Watson, the third Prime Minister of Australia.
Early life
Ada Jane Low was born in Bexley, Kent, England, and arrived in New South Wales as a two-year-old in 1857. She was accompanied by her parents, William and Emily Jane Low, and siblings, Edward and Alice, as an "assisted immigrant" on the ship Light of the Age. Two further siblings, Adelaide and Agnes, were born in New South Wales in the years that followed the family's arrival and settling in Bathurst.
Personal life
Low and Watson were wed on 27 November 1889 at the Unitarian Church, Liverpool Street, Sydney, shortly before he was elected to the New South Wales Trades and Labour Council. She was not involved in her husband's political career, except to support his decision to resign as Labor leader in 1907. She may also have been influential in her husband's later estrangement from the Australian Labor Party.
Watson died at her home in Paddington on 18 July 1921, from a bout of influenza that developed into pneumonia. She was buried at Waverley Cemetery.{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/239744009|title=Death of Mrs. J. C. Watson|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=20 July 1921}}{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15954177|title=Mrs. J. C. Watson|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=20 July 1921}}
Owing partly to her husband's brief term as prime minister, Ada Watson is possibly the least well-known of prime ministerial spouses in Australia. No photograph of her has ever been found.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/spouse.aspx Australia's Prime Ministers: Ada Watson] National Archives of Australia
{{s-start}}
{{s-hon}}
{{s-bef|before=Pattie Deakin }}
{{s-ttl|title=Spouse of the Prime Minister of Australia |years=27 April 1904 – 18 August 1904}}
{{s-aft|after=Flora Reid}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Ada}}
Category:Spouses of prime ministers of Australia
Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia
Category:Infectious disease deaths in New South Wales