James Anderson Scott Watson

Watson was born on 16 November 1889 in Forfar, the son of William Watson a farmer at Downieken near Dundee. He studied science at the University of Edinburgh graduating with a BSc in 1908. He then went to the United States to study agriculture at the University of Iowa, gaining an MSc in 1910.{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=30 March 2019|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}

He began lecturing in agriculture at the University of Edinburgh in 1911. In the World War I he served in the Lothian and Border Horse Yeomanry for a year and was then commissioned at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant into the Royal Field Artillery where he won the Military Cross for bravery.National Archives: Military records: J A S Watson

In 1922, he became Britain's first ever Professor of Agriculture (still at University of Edinburgh). In 1925 he transferred to be the Sibthorpian Professor of Rural Economy at the University of Oxford replacing William Somerville.{{cite web|url=https://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/194958/Agriculture-AG.pdf|title=DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE|website=Bodleian.ox.ac.uk|accessdate=21 April 2019}} He retired in 1944 and was succeeded at Oxford by {{ill|Geoffrey Emett Blackman|qid=Q18761408}}.{{cite journal|title=New Sibthorpian Professor at Oxford: Mr. G. E. Blackman|year=1945|author=Anon|journal=Nature|volume=156|issue=3957|pages=262|doi=10.1038/156262a0|bibcode=1945Natur.156Q.262. |doi-access=free}}

On 15 July 1949, he was knighted by King George VI for services to agriculture.{{cite web|url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/38666/page/3460/data.pdf|title=3460 THE LONDON GAZETTE|date=15 July 1949|website=thegazette.co.uk|accessdate=21 April 2019}}

• The History of the Agricultural Society of England 1839-1939 (1946)
• Great Farmers (1951)
• Agriculture in the British Economy (1956)
• Agriculture: The Science and Practice of British Farming
• Evolution
• Heredity
• The Farming Year

Watson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). His proposers were Robert Wallace, James Cossar Ewart, Sir Thomas Hudson Beare, and Robert Stewart MacDougall.

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Category:1889 births

Category:1949 deaths

Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh

Category:Academics of the University of Oxford

Category:Scottish agriculturalists

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Category:Knights Bachelor

Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire

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