Information about David Meredith Seares Watson

David Meredith Seares Watson FRS (18 June 1886–23 July 1973) was the Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at University College, London from 1921 to 1951.

Biography

Early life

Watson was born at Higher Broughton, near Salford, Lancashire, the only son of David Watson, a pioneering metallurgist. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and the University of Manchester. He specialised in geology and began to study plant fossils in coal deposits. In 1907, his final year, he published an important paper on coal balls with Marie Stopes (who had an early career as a paleobotanist); after graduating with first class honours he was appointed as a Beyer fellow at Manchester and went on to complete his MSc in 1909.

After his MSc, Watson continued to develop his wide interest in fossils and studied intensively at the British Museum of Natural History in London, and on extended visits to South Africa, Australia, and the United States. In 1912 he was appointed as a Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology, at University College London by Professor James Peter Hill.

His academic work was eventually interrupted in 1916 by the Great War when he took a commission in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. He was later transferred to the nascent Royal Air Force where he worked on balloon and airship fabric design.

Marriage and children

Watson was married during the Great War in 1917 to Katharine Margarite Parker, and had two daughters, Katharine Mary and Janet Vida.

Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy

After the Great War, Watson returned to academic study and in 1921 he succeeded Hill as the Jodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, at UCL. He devoted his energy to the development of the Zoology department at UCL, and consolidated his respected position in the academic establishment. In 1922 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, where he gave the Croonian Lecture in 1924. Four years later, he was invited to give the Romanes Lecture in Oxford; he spoke on "Paleontology and the Evolution of Man".

He was appointed to the British Government's Agricultural Research Council in 1931, which involved spending time in the United States where he lectured at Yale University in 1937. At the outbreak of the Second World War he returned to Britain to supervise the evacuation of the UCL Zoology department to Bangor in Wales, and then became Secretary of the Scientific Subcommittee of the Food Policy Committee of the War Cabinet.

After the war he continued to teach, and to travel widely. He received many awards and academic honours including the Darwin Medal from the Royal Society, the Linnean Medal from the Linnean Society, the Wollaston Medal from the Geological Society of London, and honorary degrees from many universities in Britain and elsewhere. Watson retired from his chair in 1951, but continued to study and publish at UCL until his full retirement in 1965.

His scientific research, besides his early original work on fossil plants, was chiefly concerned with vertebrate palaeontology, especially fossil reptiles. He amassed a large collection of fossils from his wide travels.

Published works

• "Palaeontology and the Evolution of Man", Romanes Lecture, Oxford, 1928
• The Animal Bones from Skara Brae (1931)
• "Science and Government", the Earl Grey Memorial Lecture, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1942
• "Paleontology and Modern Biology", the Silliman Memorial Lecture, Yale University, 1951
• Many papers on vertebrate palaeontology and connected subjects in Philosophical Transactions, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Journal of Anatomy, and elsewhere.

DMS Watson Library

The Science library, known as the DMS Watson library, of University College London is named in his honour. It is UCL's second largest library and is in Malet Place adjacent to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology.

References

• UCL Library Archive biographical notes, retrieved November 2005.

See also

• University College London
• autobiography
• biography