William Watson was born at Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire, England, in 1858 . In 1880, he published his first book The Prince's Quest . Recognition came with the publication of Wordsworth's Grave in 1890 ; and fame with the publication of the second edition in 1891, and with the appearance in the Fortnightly Review, August 1891, of an article by Grant Alien entitled A New Poet . During the years 1890-1892, he contributed articles to the National Review, Spectator, Illustrated London News, Academy, Bookman and Atlanta, which were collected and republished in 1893 as Excursions in Criticism . In 1893, he also published Lacrymae Musaram and The Eloping Angels, a serio-comic trifle dedicated to Grant Alien. During this year William Gladstone bestowed on him the Civil List pension of £200. In 1894, he published Odes and Other Poems, and in 1895, The Father of the Forest . The volume contained a sonnet named To the Turk in Armenia, which was a prelude to the series of sonnets about Armenia, which was, in turn, contributed to the Westminster Gazette and republished in a brochure called The Purple East in 1896. These sonnets were republished with revision and considerable additions, and a preface by the bishop of Hereford, in The Year of Shame in 1897.
In 1898, he published his Collected Poems and a volume of new poetry The Hope of the World . In 1900, he married Maureen Pring, with whom he had two daughters. In 1902, he printed privately 50 copies of New Poems, and in 1903 besides a volume of Selected Poems, a collection of poems contributed to various periodicals and called For England: Poems Written During Estrangement, a poetical defence of his patriotism during the Boer War. He was knighted in 1917 . He died in 1935 .
Source: Who was who, 1929-1940, (London, 1941).
From the guide to the Papers of William Watson, 1858-1935, poet, c.1935, (Glasgow University Library, Special Collections Department)
