 In February 1918, Watt was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given command of the AFC's 1st Training Wing (Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 Squadrons) headquartered at Tetbury in Gloucestershire, England; the wing's role was to train replacement pilots for the four operational AFC squadrons in Palestine and France. Watt proposed moving the wing to France, but it remained in England. He was mentioned in despatches by Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig on 7 April, and the commendation was gazetted on 28 May. Shortly after the end of hostilities in November 1918, novelist William John Locke visited 1st Training Wing and found that "there was not one [of Watt's men] who ... did not confide to me his pride in serving under a leader so distinguished". A pilot later opined that as well as having "courage, determination, and an immense capacity for work", Watt possessed "the greatest factor in leadership, a genius for endearing himself (without conscious effort) to all who served under him".
