Albert George Fiddes-Watt

Captain Albert George “Peter” Fiddes-Watt
17 Mar 1906 - 1987
Biography

Auxiliary Units Intelligence Officer for the Highlands and Outer Hebrides for most of the war, likely starting in September 1940.

He married Sylvia Coleridge, an actress known for Tess, Pride and Prejudice and Dr Who, and their daughter Kate Coleridge was born in 1943 in Inverness, Scotland while her father was Intelligence Officer for the area. She was also an actress. Fiddes-Watt was the son of Edwardian painter George Fiddes-Watt and was a noted sculptor, picture restorer and pre-war Osteopath. He had wanted to train in medicine but went to Grays School of Art in Aberdeen to recuperate after a bout of pleurisy.

At the end of the war he became part of the Bayswater artist colony in the roads around Westbourne Grove and Ledbury Road, living in Fulham.

Interviewed about his restoring work in March 1978 in the Marylebone Mercury he was recorded as a lean, austere man who had been something of an athlete in his youth. His nephew commented "He doesn't say much about himself. But there is a great deal there if you trouble to find out".

Some of his wartime correspondence survives in a Canadian Archive though it is not thought to contain any references to Auxiliary Units.

Postings
Unit or location Role Posted from until
Highlands & Islands Intelligence Officer 01 Sep 1941 22 Apr 1944
Northumberland Intelligence Officer 27 Sep 1944 03 Dec 1944
Regiment
The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
Military number
137046
Commissioned or Enlisted
22 Jun 1940
Occupation

Painting restorer. Pre war lecturer on literary subjects

Address
(1943) Rossal, Inverness, Scotland. Later 66 Ledbury Road, London W11.
Other information

He was interviewed by David Lampe for The Last Ditch