Gavin K. Watt

Gavin Watt was born in Toronto in 1937, graduated Engineering, met his wife of over 60 years in Sunday School, and had three children. He began studying the armed forces and collecting militaria while a teenager. In the 1960’s, he was instrumental in founding Service Rifle Shooting Association, which is still alive and healthy. He next ventured into military reenacting and founded the American Loyalist regiment, the King’s Royal Yorkers, which he commanded until the 1990’s. Gavin also recreated a commemorative unit of the Perth Regiment of 5th Canadian Armoured Division and was an active member of the reenactment units, the 1758 New York Provincial Regiment and the 20th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-18. As the number of units created among his colleagues grew substantially, he established the federally-incorporated, Museum of Applied Military History. The various units appeared at events from Virginia, across the northern States and Provinces, to Britain and mainland Europe. Having worked for decades in the industrial paints industry, plastics resins and fabricating, and packaging, his business career came to an abrupt halt; however, he had already been intensely researching and writing articles, and books, and appearing at speaking engagements about the Revolutionary War in Canada and the north-eastern States, so a second career took hold. Gavin’s campaign histories now cover every year of the north-eastern war – 1775-1784, and he has published unit histories and rolls for Johnson’s Royal Yorkers, Jessup’s Loyal Rangers and Rogers’ King’s Rangers. A large volume addresses the non-military women and men who took refuge in Quebec during and after the war. He currently hides in the bush north of Toronto.