Editing Chris Watson (section)

==Early life==
===Birth and family background===
Watson was born Johan Cristian Tanck on 9 April 1867 in [[Valparaíso]], Chile. He was the only child of Martha (née Minchin) and Johan Cristian Tanck, senior.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=23}} His father was also born in Valparaíso, a [[German Chileans|German Chilean]] whose ancestors had emigrated from the [[Kingdom of Hanover]] and established an import–export firm.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=26}} He worked as a merchant seaman, possibly a ship's carpenter, on trade routes across the Pacific.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=23}} He arrived in New Zealand aboard ''La Joven Julia'' on 24 December 1865 and married Martha Minchin in [[Port Chalmers]] less than a month later, on 19 January 1866.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|pp=26–27}} Their marriage was later registered at Valparaíso's [[Iglesia de la Matriz]].{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=23}} Watson's mother was born in [[County Tipperary]], Ireland, and was 16 years old at the time of her marriage to Tanck.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=27}} She joined him on board the ''Julia'', which eventually returned to Chile and docked in Valparaíso a few days before Watson's birth. In the months after his birth the ship worked a regular route carrying timber between Valparaíso and [[Chiloé Island]].{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=24-25}}

In 1868, Watson moved to New Zealand with his mother, returning to her family on the [[South Island]]. The fate of his father is uncertain, as no records of his death have been found.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|p=26}} On 15 February 1869, his mother married George Thomas Watson at the registry office in [[Waipori, New Zealand|Waipori]], describing herself as a widow. Her second husband was a 30-year-old miner born in [[Ballymoney]], Ireland, who had come to New Zealand after several years working in Scotland.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|pp=29–30}} Watson came to have nine half-siblings from his mother's second marriage, born between 1869 and 1887. He was treated as the biological child of George Watson, adopting his step-father's surname; his given names were also anglicised.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|pp=30–32}}

As an adult, Watson gave incorrect and contradictory information about the circumstances of his birth and the identity of his parents. He allowed some biographical profiles to list him as born in New Zealand, while his second wife and daughter understood that he had been born to British parents in [[international waters]] outside Valparaíso. On legal documents he listed George Watson as his biological father and provided an incorrect [[maiden name]] for his mother.{{sfn|Grassby|Ordonez|1999|pp=22–23}} Watson's biographers have suggested he may have originally concealed his background for convenience, but later deliberately did so for political reasons, including concerns over parliamentary eligibility and possible xenophobia. Birth overseas to a non-British father would have made him an [[Alien (law)|alien]] ineligible for election to federal parliament under [[Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia|section 44(i) of the constitution]].<ref name=jac1>{{cite news |first=Norman |last=Abjorensen |url=http://www.smh.com.au/comment/former-prime-minister-chris-watson-and-king-omalley-almost-certainly-fell-foul-of-section-44-20170821-gy0m13.html |title=Former prime minister Chris Watson and King O'Malley almost certainly fell foul of Section 44 |work=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=21 August 2017 |access-date=30 June 2018}}</ref><ref name=jac2>{{cite news |first=Norman |last=Abjorensen |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article127521763 |title=Watson a British subject |work=[[The Canberra Times]] |date=2 November 1993 |access-date=30 June 2018 |via=Trove}}</ref>

===Childhood and move to Australia===
Watson attended the state school in [[Oamaru]], [[North Otago]], [[New Zealand]] until ten years of age when he left to become a [[rail nipper]]. Then after a period of helping on the family farm, at thirteen years of age he was apprenticed as a [[Compositor (typesetting)|compositor]] at ''The North Otago Times'', a newspaper run by prominent reformist politician [[William Steward (New Zealand politician)|William Steward]], with the public affairs exposure augmenting his minor formal schooling. Following the death of his mother and the loss of his job, he migrated to [[Sydney]] in 1886 at nineteen years of age. He worked for a month as a stablehand at [[Government House, Sydney|Government House]], then found employment as a compositor for a number of newspapers including ''[[Daily Telegraph (Sydney)|The Daily Telegraph]]'', ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]'' and ''[[The Australian Star]]''. Through this proximity to newspapers, books and writers he furthered his education and developed an interest in politics and became active in the printing union. He married [[Ada Watson|Ada Jane Low]], a British-born Sydney seamstress, at the [[Unitarianism|Unitarian Church]] on Liverpool Street in Sydney on 27 November 1889.<ref name=adb>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last= Nairn |first= Bede |year= 1990 |id= A120450b |title= Watson, John Christian (1867–1941)  | access-date =9 February 2010 }}</ref><ref name=treasury>{{cite web |url=https://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1304/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=06_Chris_Watson_second_treasurer.asp |title=Chris Watson: Australia's second Treasurer – Australian Treasury |publisher=Archive.treasury.gov.au |access-date=30 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422021729/https://archive.treasury.gov.au/documents/1304/HTML/docshell.asp?URL=06_Chris_Watson_second_treasurer.asp |archive-date=22 April 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=apmey>{{cite web | title =Chris Watson, Early years | publisher =[[National Archives of Australia]] | work =Australia's Prime Ministers | url =http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/before-office.aspx#section1 | access-date =9 February 2010 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090929094444/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/before-office.aspx#section1 | archive-date =29 September 2009 | url-status =dead }}</ref><ref name=apmaw>{{cite web
  | title =Chris Watson, Ada Watson
  | publisher =[[National Archives of Australia]]
  | work =Australia's Prime Ministers
  | url =http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/spouse.aspx
  | access-date =9 February 2010
  | archive-date =6 June 2010
  | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100606172129/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/watson/spouse.aspx
  | url-status =dead
  }}</ref>