Charles Brodie Boog Watson

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This so ...

FSA(Scot) (7 Nov 1858 - 16 Jan 1947''Daily Mail'' 18 Jan 1947) was a 19th/20th-century Scottish engineer and antiquarian. His analytical and accurate approach to research makes him a historian's historian especially in the field of

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

. He left a large collection of books and documents to the city on his death, known as the ''Boog Watson Bequest''.

Life

He was born on 7 November 1858 in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

the son of Rev

Robert Boog Watson Robert Boog Watson FRSE (26 September 1823 – 23 June 1910) was a Scottish malacologist and minister of the Free Church of Scotland best known as the author of the report on the Scaphopoda and Gastropoda collected during the H.M.S. ''Challen ...

and his wife Janet Cowan, daughter of

Alexander Cowan Alexander Cowan (17 June 1775 – 13 February 1859) was a Scottish papermaker and philanthropist. He was a cousin and friend of Thomas Chalmers, the prominent Scottish minister. Through his business he was a friend and associate of the publisher ...

. From 1869 to 1876 he was educated at

Edinburgh Academy The Edinburgh Academy is an independent day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, which was opened in 1824. The original building, on Henderson Row in the city's New Town, is now part of the Senior School. The Junior School is located on Arboretum Roa ...

. During this period his parents lived with his uncle,

Patrick Heron Watson Sir Patrick Heron Watson (5 January 1832 – 21 December 1907) was an eminent 19th-century Scottish surgeon and pioneer of anaesthetic development. He was associated with a number of surgical innovations including excision of the knee joi ...

in a Georgian townhouse at Hope Street off

Charlotte Square 300px, Robert Adam's palace-fronted north side Charlotte Square is a garden square in Edinburgh, Scotland, part of the New Town, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The square is located at the west end of George Street and was intende ...

. Not until 1895 does Charles appear as a home-owner (despite being married for several years). He than appears living at 16 Granville Terrace in the Merchiston district of Edinburgh. He is then listed for the first time as "engineer, West End Engine Works", these being at 170 Dundee Street. He was later made a partner in this company. In 1904 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

John Sturgeon Mackay John Sturgeon Mackay FRSE LLD (1843–1914) was a Scottish mathematician and academic author. Life He was born on 22 October 1843 at Auchencairn near Kirkcudbright the son of John Mackay and his wife Jessie Sturgeon. The family moved to Perth ...

Sir William Turner Sir William Turner (7 January 1832, in Lancaster – 15 February 1916, in Edinburgh) was an English anatomist and was the Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1903 to 1916. Life Turner was born in Lancaster the son of William T ...

, and

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown FRSE FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildings complex is named after him. Early life and education Crum Brown was born at 4 Bell ...

. He retired from engineering in 1908 and then applied himself to research and cataloguing of Edinburgh's history, being given his own room in

Edinburgh City Chambers Edinburgh City Chambers in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the meeting place of the City of Edinburgh Council and its predecessors, Edinburgh Corporation and Edinburgh District Council. It is a Category A listed building. History The current buildin ...

for this purpose. He was an active member of the Old Edinburgh Club, producing the majority of their papers from 1920 to 1940. In 1933 he joined the ruling council of the

Cockburn Association The Cockburn Association (Edinburgh's Civic Trust) is one of the world's oldest architectural conservation and urban planning monitoring organisations, founded in 1875. The Scottish judge Henry Cockburn (1779–1854) was a prominent campaigner t ...

, Edinburgh's influential conservation organisation. In the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

aged over 80, he served as an

ARP warden Air Raid Precautions (ARP) refers to a number of organisations and guidelines in the United Kingdom dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air raids. Government consideration for air raid precautions increased in the 1920s a ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. He died at home, 24 Garscube Terrace in western Edinburgh on 16 January 1947 aged 88 and was cremated at Warriston Crematorium.

Family

In 1882 he was married to Jane Ballantine Nairn. Their daughter

Elspeth Janet Boog Watson Elspeth Jane Boog Watson sometimes Boog-Watson (15 May 1900 – 28 June 1980) was a teacher, writer and broadcaster. Early life and family Born in Levenhall near Musselburgh on 15 May 1900 to Charles Boog Watson and his wife Jane Ballantine ...

became a noted writer. His sister was Helen Brodie Cowan Watson. His uncle was

Publications

*''Some Notes on Moray House, Edinburgh'' (1915) *''Roll of Edinburgh Burgesses and Guild Brethren 1406 to 1760'' (1930) *''The Maps of Edinburgh 1544 to 1929'' (1932) *''Traditions of the Watsons'' *''History and Derivation of Edinburgh Street Names'' *''Register of Edinburgh Apprentices 1666 to 1755''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Charles Brodie Boog 1858 births 1947 deaths People educated at Edinburgh Academy Scottish antiquarians Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Civil Defence Service personnel British people in colonial India People from Bombay Presidency