William Smith Watkins
William was born on 7th July 1885 in Aberdeen, the seventh of George and Isabella Watkins' eleven children. He was very probably named after the prominent architect William Smith, who designed the Aberdeen Waterworks Pumping Station at Cults (where George was the superintendent engineer), among many other public buildings.
William left Aberdeen for Canada and he married Jessie Hutchinson Phillip on 7th May 1908 at Taylors Presbyterian Church, Montreal. Jessie was also from Aberdeen - her family lived in Urquhart Road. They had 3 children:
- Lillian Isabella Helen, born April 15th 1910
- George Edward Gray, born April 22nd 1911
- Jessie Williamina, born July 4th 1912.
William is thought to have been a painter. He died on October 25th 1918 in Montreal, as was recorded on the family memorial in St Peter's Cemetery, Aberdeen. Jessie and her children returned to Scotland, where she married again in 1926. She was then living at 5 Palermo Street, Glasgow. Her second husband was Adam McLeod.
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The Watkins family memorial in St Peter's Cemetery, Aberdeen, photographed in June 2000