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Robert Spence Watson

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The Right Honourable
Robert Spence Watson
President of the Liberal Party
Preceded byJames Kitson
Succeeded byAugustine Birrell
Personal details
Born(1837-06-08)8 June 1837
Gateshead, County Durham, England
Died11 March 1911(1911-03-11) (aged 73)

Robert Spence Watson (8 June 1837 – 2 March 1911) was an English solicitor, reformer, politician and writer. He became famous for pioneering labour arbitrations.[1]

Life and career

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He was born in Gateshead, County Durham, the second child of Sarah (Spence) and Joseph Watson; his parents were Quaker.[2][3] Watson's father was a liberal radical.[4] After some early tutoring, he received his secondary education at Bootham School, York and began studying at University College, London in 1853; he did not complete his degree there, but during that time, and later, he travelled abroad.[1]

Watson returned to the North East in 1860 and became a solicitor. He began a legal practice with his father under the name J. & R S Watson and he remained in practice there for the rest of his life.[1][dead link‍]

In 1862 Watson became Secretary to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne and held that position for thirty-one years. His work led to the Society accumulating the largest independent library outside London.[1] He was president of the Newcastle Liberal and Radical Association from 1884 to 1897.[4] He was one of the original convenors of the National Liberal Federation in 1877, and was its president from 1890 until 1902.

Watson helped to found the Durham College of Science in 1871, later to become Armstrong College and part of Newcastle University. He became its first president in 1910. He was instrumental in the founding of the Newcastle Free Public Library.[1]

At the beginning of 1883, Newcastle Member of Parliament Ashton Wentworth Dilke was in bad health. Watson had prepared the ground with John Morley, and when Dilke resigned his seat, Morley entered the selection process with some assurances that he would not be opposed by Joseph Cowen. The assurances, however, turned out to be poorly founded. [5]

From 1890 till 1911, Watson was the president of the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. He contributed much to the society's printed organ Free Russia.[6] He published "The History of English Rule and Policy in South Africa" in 1897, and joined the South Africa Conciliation Committee.[7] He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1907. Watson was a mountaineer and a member of the Alpine Club, making his first Alpine climb in 1861 with Henry Tuke Mennell.[8] In 1995 a blue commemorative plaque was erected outside his home.[9]

Works

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A Visit to Wazan: "The Author in Moorish Dress"
  • A Plan for Making the society more extensively useful, as an educational institution (1868)
  • The Villages around Metz (1870)[10]
  • Cædmon, the first English poet (1875)[11]
  • The history of English rule and policy in South Africa (1879) J. Forster, Newcastle upon Tyne.[12]
  • A Visit to Wazan (1880)[13]
  • The Proper Limits of Obedience to the Law"(1887)[14]
  • The History of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1793–1896) (1897)[15]
  • "Northumbrian Story and Song" in Lectures Delivered to the Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Northumbrian History, Literature, and Art (1898)[16]
  • The National Liberal Federation: From Its Commencement to the General Election of 1906 (1907)[17]
  • Joseph Skipsey: His Life and Work (1909) T. Fisher Unwin, London.

Family

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On 9 June 1863 Watson married Elizabeth Richardson at the Friends' meeting house, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.[1] In July they were in Switzerland, and on 6 July with guides they made the first ascent of Balfrin.[8] The couple had six children:[1]

Arnold, the only son, died in 1897.[23]

Elizabeth Spence Watson

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Elizabeth (1838–1919) was a social reformer.[24] By the 1860s she and her husband were involved in managing the Newcastle Industrial and Ragged School.[25]

She was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, the third daughter of Edward Richardson (1806–1863) who ran a tannery and his wife Jane Wigham, in a family of seven daughters and four sons; the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson, born the previous year, was her elder brother, and a contemporary of Robert Spence Watson at John Collingwood Bruce's Newcastle school.[26][27][28] She was educated at a Quaker school in Lewes, Sussex, and then at an art school in Newcastle where she was a student of William Bell Scott.[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Watson Burton LLP, law firm
  2. ^ Matthew, H. C. G. "Watson, Robert Spence (1837–1911)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36777. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ^ "Robert Spence Watson (1837-1911), Solicitor and Social Activist | Philanthropy North East".
  4. ^ a b "Robert Spence Watson". American Journal of International Law. 5 (3): 752–753. 1911. doi:10.1017/S0002930000238323. ISSN 0002-9300.
  5. ^ Jackson, Patrick (18 May 2012). Morley of Blackburn: A Literary and Political Biography of John Morley. Fairleigh Dickinson. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-61147-535-7.
  6. ^ Free Russia; The Organ of the English Society of Friends of Russian Freedom, Volumes 11-15 (1900–1904) (Google eBook)
  7. ^ Howe, Anthony; Morgan, Simon (2006). Rethinking nineteenth-century liberalism: Richard Cobden bicentenary essays. Ashgate. p. 239. ISBN 0-7546-5572-5. Retrieved 21 July 2011.
  8. ^ a b The Alpine Journal. Alpine Club. 1911. p. 648.
  9. ^ Gateshead commemoration plaques Archived 26 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Robert Spence Watson (1870) The Villages around Metz, J.M. Carr, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
  11. ^ Robert Spence Watson (1875) Cædmon, the first English poet, Longmans, Green and Company, London
  12. ^ "The history of English rule and policy in South Africa": a lecture delivered in the lecture room, Nelson Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, on Friday, 30 May 1879 in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
  13. ^ Robert Spence Watson (1880) A Visit to Wazan: The Sacred City of Morocco, Macmillan and Company, London
  14. ^ Robert Spence Watson (1887) The Proper Limits of Obedience to the Law, Howe Brothers, Gateshead-On-Tyne
  15. ^ Robert Spence Watson (1897) The History of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1793-1896), Walter Scott, Ltd, London
  16. ^ Lectures (1898)
  17. ^ Robert Spence Watson (1907) The National Liberal Federation: From Its Commencement to the General Election of 1906, T. Fisher Unwin, London
  18. ^ "Marriage of Miss Spence Watson". Shields Daily Gazette. 10 April 1896. p. 3.
  19. ^ "Deaths". Newcastle Journal. 25 August 1914. p. 4.
  20. ^ "Weiss, Frederick Ernest". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  21. ^ "Marriage of Miss May Spence Watson". Newcastle Chronicle. 6 August 1904. p. 9.
  22. ^ "Marriage of Miss Spence Watson". Westminster Gazette. 3 April 1902. p. 8.
  23. ^ "Funeral of Mr. Arnold Spence Watson". Newcastle Daily Chronicle. 1 December 1897. p. 5.
  24. ^ "Watson, Elizabeth Spence (1838-1919) social reformer - archives.trin.cam.ac.uk". archives.trin.cam.ac.uk.
  25. ^ Allen, Joan; Buswell, R. J. (2005). Rutherford's Ladder: The Making of Northumbria University, 1871-1996. Northumbria University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-904794-09-7.
  26. ^ Cite error: The named reference ODNB was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  27. ^ Baker, Anne Pimlott. "Richardson, John Wigham (1837–1908)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/48151. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  28. ^ a b Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. pp. 776–777. ISBN 978-1-135-43402-1.

Sources

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Party political offices
Preceded by President of the National Liberal Federation
1890–1902 		Succeeded by
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