Lt. Commander John Leslie Watkinson (1921-1997)

John Lesie Watkinson was born in 1921 in Toxteth Park in Lancashire, England, the son of Capt. Arthur Stanley Watkinson and Majorie Leslie Roberts. He was a Royal Naval Officer who The Roberts family were a well-established family in the north of England and through their Lloyd ancestors, are descendents of King Henry VII. The Watkinsons were a well-established military and engineering family also from the north of England. John's father, Capt. Arthur Stanley Watkinson (1891-1939), was an army officer. His brother, Geoffrey, was an army officer. John's mother, Marjorie, was once a classical concert pianist who was trained in Vienna.

John attended Oundle School before joining the Royal Navy. He left Dartmouth in 1939 when the war broke out. During the second world war, he was a submarine commander, conducting missions against German U-boats. He later served in artic missions in the North Sea to spy on the Soviet Union.

John led the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947 in charge of the HMS Vanguard where he met Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth, then the Princess of Wales. He also recounts being with Lord Mountbatten. John later retired from the Royal Navy in 1958 after serving 20 years. After retiring in the 1960s, he bought a boatyard at Newton Ferrers in Devon, where he produced a series of small yachts, winning the boat show Earls Court. One of his boats included the Drascombe, which was sailed by David Pyle between 1969 and 1979 all the way from Emsworth, England, to Darwin, Australia. While living in Devon, John also spent the remainder of his life as a member of a fox hunt and sailing.

John married Leida Elfrieda Loonik from Estonia on 1 June 1942. Leida was a refugee from a well-known family Estonia who escaped moments before Stalin invaded the Baltics. Coming from a well educated family, she studied at Cambridge. Her brother, Alexander, was the fencing champion of Estonia. They had two children, Anna Tenacious, born on 2 January 1943, and John Hilary Koit, born on 28 January 1945. The marriage sadly dissolved in 1953. Leida later passed away from a lifelong kidney disease in 1960. John later remarried to Katherine Mary Crook in 1953. They had 3 children, Alexander James born in 1959, Edward John born in 1968, and Emma Kate born in 1973. John later passed away on 19 December 1997.