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
Musselburgh (; sco, Musselburrae; gd, Baile nam Feusgan) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It has a population of .
History
The name Musselburgh is O ...
on 15 May 1900 to
Charles Boog Watson and his wife Jane Ballantine Nairn. Her father was a noted Scottish engineer and antiquarian, who wrote numerous works and left the sizable
Boog Watson bequest to Edinburgh's libraries and her paternal aunt was children's author
Helen Bannerman
Helen Brodie Cowan Bannerman (' Watson; 25 February 1862 – 13 October 1946) was a Scottish author of children's books. She is best known for her first book, ''Little Black Sambo'' (1899).
Life
Bannerman was born at 35 Royal Terrace, Edinbur ...
. Her paternal grandfather was
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 ...
, noted Scottish
malacologist
Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...
and minister of the
Free Church of Scotland Free Church of Scotland may refer to:
* Free Church of Scotland (1843–1900), seceded in 1843 from the Church of Scotland. The majority merged in 1900 into the United Free Church of Scotland; historical
* Free Church of Scotland (since 1900), rema ...
.
Watson's parents lived in a relatively large home at 24 Garscube Terrace,
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 ...
. In 1919, her oldest brother Robert married Kate Winifred Lundie and in 1928 her other brother William married Vera Marie Svobodova in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. Both brothers were medical doctors, her brother Robert was also a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force who died suddenly in 1935.
Career and later life
Watson published her first book in 1935, the first of several educational titles intended for secondary school children, co-authored with fellow Edinburgh writer
Janet Isabel Carruthers. Her death notice in ''The Daily Mail'' records that she was head of the history department George Watson's Ladies College.
[''The Daily Mail'' 30 June 1980]
Throughout the 1930s and 1940s Watson delivered multiple radio lectures on Scottish and British history, language, music and European geography intended for school-age listeners. In November 1939 she delivered a programme on the
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4.
History
1922–1939: Interwar period
Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
called ''“Ah! Freedom is a Noble Thing” – The Story of Scotland's fight for Independence''.
In 1947 she is noted as serving as chairperson of the Edinburgh Trust for the University Education of Women. and she published booklet outlining the first 100 years of this organisation in 1967.
From 1966 to 1969 she served as member of 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 group.
Prior to moving into a Morningside nursing home Watson had lived most of her life in her parents’ former home at 24 Garscube Road. She died in the nursing home on the 28th June 1980 and was cremated at
Mortonhall Crematorium
The Mortonhall Crematorium is a multi-denominational crematorium in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is an example of Basil Spence's post-war expressionist style. Opened in 1967, the crematorium is set in mature woodland and is a Category A listed buildi ...
the following week.
Selected publications
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''Beyond the Sunset – A Book of Explorers'' (Oxford University Press, 1935)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. The Story of Moses (Oxford University Press, 1936)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''West of the Moon – A Book of Explorers'' (Oxford University Press, 1938)
*Synge, Margaret Bertha, Boog-Watson, Elspeth Janet and Carruthers, J. Isabel; ''A Book of Discovery. The history of the world's exploration, from earliest times to the finding of the South Pole'' (1939)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. ''Stories of the Middle Ages'' (Edinburgh, 1940)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''History through the Ages: Wall Pictures'' (London, 1947–1950)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, J. Isabel ''How People Lived'' (Oxford University Press, 1948)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''History through the Ages. Teacher's Companion'' (London, 1949)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''Country Life through the Ages'' (London, 1955)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''Houses'' (London, 1958)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. ''Elizabethan Sailor'' (Oxford University Press, 1962)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth J. and Carruthers, Janet Isabel ''An Eighteenth Century Highlander'' (London, 1965)
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth Janet A History of the Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women 1867-1967
*Boog-Watson, Elspeth Janet ''The Ladies’ Caledonian Club 1908-1970'' (The Edinburgh Club, c.1970)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boog Watson, Elspeth Janet
1900 births
1980 deaths
20th-century British women writers
20th-century Scottish women writers
20th-century Scottish women
Scottish broadcasters