Stephen John Watson
{{Short description|British agriculturalist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:Bush House - geograph.org.uk - 583145.jpg
Stephen John Watson FRSE FRIC FRAgS CBE (24 March 1898 – 25 June 1976) was a 20th-century British agriculturalist. He had an expert knowledge of the nutritional values of hay, straw and silage under different conditions.Index of Agricultural Research 1957
In 1947 he founded the Edinburgh Centre of Rural Economy (ECRE) at Bush House, near Penicuik.{{cite web|url=https://www.scrr.ac.uk/history|website=scrr.ac.uk|title=History · SCRR · Scottish Consortium for Rural Research|accessdate=2019-03-31}}
Life
Watson was born on 24 March 1898 in Chanchamayo, Peru, the son of William Watson, an accountant. He was educated in Lima.{{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}}
In 1910 the family returned to Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he completed his education at Tynemouth School. He then studied science at the University of Newcastle.
His studies were interrupted by the First World War, during which he was in the Scottish Horse Regiment, then in the King Edward's Horse Regiment. Returning to University after the war, he graduated with a BSc in 1920.
In 1936 he became head of Biochemistry and Nutrition at ICI Research Laboratories at Jealott's Hill. In 1944 he was appointed Professor of Agriculture at the University of Edinburgh, succeeding Ernest Shearer.{{cite web|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/154297b0|title=Agriculture at Edinburgh|website=Nature|accessdate=2019-03-31}} This role also included being Principal of the East of Scotland College of Agriculture.Jealott's Hill, The Agricultural Research Station of ICI, 1953
In 1945 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were James Pickering Kendall, Alexander McCall Smith, Edward Wyllie Fenton and Alfred Cameron.
Publications
- The Digestibility and Feeding Value of Greg Meal (1931)
- The Nutritive Value of Grass and its By Products (1932)
- The Vitamin A and Carotene Content of Butter (1932)
- The Value of Grass Silage (1932)
- A New Alternative to Hay (1933)
- The Conservation of Grassland Herbage (1934)
- The Chemical Composition of Grass Silage (1937)
- Digestibility of Straw (1939)
- Increasing the Feeding Value of Cereal Straws (1941)
- The Teart Pastures of Somerset (1943)
- The Composition and Nutritive Value of Seed Hays (1944)
References
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Category:British agriculturalists
Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:Peruvian military personnel