British bryologist at the University of Reading. Eric Vernon Watson was born in Cranleigh, Surrey, the middle son of three boys, with a financial manager for a father. His mother looked after a fruit orchard and greenhouses in their large garden and alongside his brother, Donald, Eric took an interest in watching and drawing birds. Donald Watson went on to become a successful ornithological artist. After attending Cranleigh School Eric Watson studied pure science at Edinburgh University and graduated in 1935. First taking an interest in mosses on a field trip that year to the Outer Hebrides, he remained at the university to study for a PhD which he received in 1938. His thesis was entitled "Studies in the anatomy of anomalous monocotyledons", which won him the Hutton Balfour Prize for Botany.
Following this Watson moved to the United States for two years on a Commonwealth Fellowship before returning to the UK to teach at the University of Liverpool and, later, at the Harper Adams Agricultural College in Newport, Shropshire. In 1946 he began to work for the University of Reading where he would remain until his retirement in 1979, first as a lecturer and later as a senior lecturer in their department of botany. As a teacher he inspired many students on weekend moss forays which would begin and end at his house for refreshments.
His academic contributions include numerous publications on the morphology, ecology and florists of the mosses as well as two important books. British Mosses and Liverworts (1956) was the standard bryophyte flora for the British Isles for many years and his Structure and Life of Bryophytes (1964) was also an influential text. An expert on the moss flora of the Isle of May, Watson was more than just a bryologist and he had a wide understanding of the general British flora. On top of this he enjoyed bird watching, gardening and painting, producing many of the illustrations for his books and creating watercolours in his spare time. He was also a keen tennis player and golfer and with his wife, Joyce, he had four daughters.
Over the course of his life Watson had gathered a large herbarium of bryophyte specimens which he left to the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh, where he had spent many hours as a student. Also leaving specimens to the collection at the University of Reading he was a member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles for almost 50 years.
Sources:
D.J. Gibson, 2001, "Obituary: Eric Vernon Watson BSc, PhD (1914-1999)", The Bryologist, 104(3): 471-472
S.L. Jury, 2000, " Eric Vernon Watson (1914-1999)", Watsonia, 23(2): 371-372.
