"It was cabled on Thursday that Captain Charles Harold Reynell Watts had been killed in action. Captain Watts was at Nelson College from 1895 to 1900, when he joined the Eastern Extension Cable Company at Cable Bay. He returned to College from 1902 to 1905 to pursue his military studies, and gained a commission in the Imperial Army, joining the 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. He was a prominent footballer, and was captain of the XV., and was also head of the school in 1905. The deceased was a son of the late Mr. Charles Alexander Watts, "Lansdown[e]," Wairau Valley, Marlborough. He was for some time stationed with his regiment at Malta, and at Alexandria, whence he was ordered to the front. Captain Watts is the first Nelson collegian who has fallen in the great war." [Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13680, 20 January 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)]
"LETTER FROM CAPTAIN WATTS. WRITTEN IN THE TRENCHES. A relative of the late Captain Harold Watts has just received a letter written in the trenches by that officer on December 3rd. Captain Watts was killed in action on Christmas Day. After a few sentences concerning business matters, he continues: "We are at present billeted in a farmhouse. still within the shelling area, and have to be prepared to rush out at a moment's notice into funk holes. We do three days and nights in the trenches and three days in billets. I shall become a first-class mole if this sort of warfare continues. I wish I could compress myself. I am much too large for a trench. We have had bitter weather, with frost and snow; it now rains at intervals, and is fairly mild. Except for a cold I am quite fit. Trench life is all upside down. We keep awake all night, and try to get some sleep by day, and eat both by day and by night. After three days and three nights of it one is quite glad to roll up in a sleeping bag in billets. Blankets are, of course, not allowed in the trenches. We get plenty of food, but very monotonous. Mails and parcels come into the trenches at night with the rations. Our friend the German is only 100 yards away, also in a trench, sometimes even less, and we shoot at each other quite frequently. A Happy New Year to you all, and my fond love to Aunt - . Yours sincerely, Harold Watts." A soldier's letter, brief and terse, eloquent of what our men at the front are enduring. Captain Watts was an officer of the Northamptons, and it will be remembered that he graduated from Nelson College, where he was head of the school. He was a splendid specimen of physical manhood, standing over 6ft high and well proportioned." [Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 13689, 30 January 1915, Page 5]
