John Watt

John Brown Watt, MLC (16 May 1826 – 28 September 1897) was a Scottish-born Australian politician. He served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council in Sydney, and he was a board member of the Imperial Federation League in London. He was the founder of the Hospital for Sick Children, Glebe, and a director of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and a director of the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary, and a director of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and a director of the Union Bank of Australia (now the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited).

Early years Watt was born in Edinburgh, Mid-Lothian, Scotland. He was the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton Watt, a Royal Navy officer, and his wife Margaret (née Gilchrist).

He was reappointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council in October 1874. In 1877, he presented the sum of £1000 to the University of Sydney to found an exhibition for students from primary schools. He presided over the Royal Commission on Military Defences of 1881.

Later career He was the Commissioner for New South Wales at the International Exhibitions of Philadelphia (1876), Paris (1878), Sydney (1879), Amsterdam (1883) and at Calcutta (1883–84). In 1884, he was invited to the United Kingdom to join the Executive Committee of the Imperial Federation League. In 1890, he forfeited his New South Wales Legislative Council seat due to absence in England.

Watt died in Bournemouth, Dorset on 28 September 1897. Susan Gai Watt, , daughter of Ernest and Ruth, married Commander Sir Laurence Whistler Street. She was the first female chair of the Eastern Sydney Health Service (later amalgamated with Illawarra).