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Grandpa Steven
John Steven Watson was born in 1916 on Tyneside, England. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, winning a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford where he took a first in History, in 1939.
He served during the Second World War in the Ministry of Fuel and Power, becoming Private Secretary to the Minister, Mannie Shinwell. After 1945, he returned to Oxford as Lecturer, Student and Tutor of Christ Church where he established an international reputation as an eighteenth-century constitutional Historian.
In 1966, he succeeded Sir T Malcolm Knox as Principal of the University of St Andrews, at a critical time for the institution. The University of Dundee was to be established by Royal Charter, in 1967, and the University of St Andrews was poised to rise or fall independently. Watson's vision was of an international community of scholars concerned with pure scholarship but never turning its back on the world, an institution large enough to be varied and viable and to withstand buffeting from external events. He was in fact, the last Principal of the University of St Andrews to be appointed by the Crown, as the Education (Scotland) Act of 1981, vested the power of appointment in the University Court.
His Principalship saw the salvation of pre-clinical medicine through the Manchester agreement, the development of the Social Sciences (especially Psychology), the building of a new library, the revival of St Leonard's College and the opening of an art centre. He also strove to build up the undergraduate population, enabling the University to survive the cuts of 1980-1989.
One of his great successes was the strengthening of the concept of St Andrews as an international university. The overseas student population grew and he travelled widely to advertise the virtues of the University and to seek support. He was a tireless and effective ambassador for the University abroad and the contacts he made bore fruit. Thus the Robert T Jones Memorial Trust was established, and exchanges with students of Emory University, Atlanta took place.
Watson had a welcoming, warm personality and was renowned for his sense of humour and improvisation. He cared deeply about students as individuals and as scholars. He was devoted to his family and relied greatly on his wife. He announced that he was to retire on 30 September 1986, but in fact died in June 1986.
http://www.gashe.ac.uk:443/isaar/P0290.html
http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/stgiles/tour/west/37.htm

