Captain Alan Oliver Watson (left), a Dental Officer serving
with the 2/4th Field Ambulance, carries out some
emergency dental work in the open on Lieutenant
Todman, assisted by another member of the unit.

[AWM P02424.072]

Captain Alan Oliver Watson enlisted in the Australian Army Medical Corps in June 1940, and served in the 9th Dental Unit in Palestine and Syria. He returned to Australia in March 1942.

Posted to New Guinea in October 1942, Captain Watson worked with the 2/4th Field Ambulance. He was the 2/4th Field Ambulance dental officer and also acted as the anaesthetist for the surgical team. In his war diary, he records he gave 90 general anaesthetics for surgery between 16 October and 5 November 1942 as the team made their way up and over the Kokoda Track treating casualties.

Alan Watson was also kept busy with his dental patients. Between Myola and Kokoda he inspected and treated 70 patients, performing 80 extractions as well as treating a number of other dental conditions, some of which were caused by injuries during the fighting. He was unable to receive any more supplies on the Track and had to ‘make do’ with the dental kit with which he had set off.

Captain Watson’s dental kit, containing the items he
felt would be most needed on the Kokoda Track.
He carried a selection of mirrors, forceps,
scalpels, dental chisels, syringes and
medications in his dental box. The two
smaller boxes contained anaesthetics
and medications.

[AWM P02424.051]

In January 1943, Captain Watson returned to Australia suffering from malaria and dysentery. He was mentioned in despatches in December 1943 for ‘having rendered gallant and distinguished service in the South-West Pacific Area’ and was discharged from the Army in January 1944. Captain Watson’s photographs and papers are in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, in Sydney. [Mitchell Library MSS1825]