266 Obituary Notices of Fellows deceased. 



HENRY WILLIAM WATSON. 1827-1903. 



Henry William Watson was the son of Thomas Watson, Esquire, 

 of the Royal Navy. He was born in 1827, and received his early 

 education at King's College, London. In 1846 he entered at Trinity 

 College, Cambridge, and devoted his attention principally to mathe- 

 matics, in Hopkin's Classes, but not to the entire exclusion of other 

 studies. In 1850 he took his degree as Second Wrangler and Smith's 

 prizeman, and in 1851 was elected a Fellow of Trinity. He held the 

 office of Assistant Tutor of his College for two years, 1851-1853. He 

 then went to reside in London with some not very decided intention 

 of studying law, and was a pupil in the chambers of Mr. Christie,, 

 the conveyancer. Legal studies seem to have had little fascination 

 for him, and he returned to mathematics, accepting, in 1854, the post 

 of Second Master in the City of London School, and subsequently that of 

 Mathematical Lecturer at King's College, London. In 1856 he married 

 Miss E. Rowe, of Cambridge, and in 1857 became Mathematical Master 

 at Harrow, then under Dr. Vaughan. He was ordained Deacon in 

 1856, and received Priest's orders in 1858. 



In 1865 he accepted the living of Berkeswell, in the gift of the 

 father of one of his Harrow pupils. At Berkeswell he had more 

 leisure to study on his own account, and from this time, so long 

 as his health lasted, he took a keen interest in applied mathematics,, 

 contributing occasionally to scientific periodicals, and being the author, 

 alone or in partnership, of the works mentioned in the sequel. He 

 was always a ready and sympathetic helper in other men's work, 

 and there are many who would gladly acknowledge their obligations 

 to him. 



In 1860 and 1861, while still at Harrow, he acted as Moderator, 

 and then Examiner, in the Cambridge Mathematical Tripos. He was* 

 again an additional Examiner in 1877. 



He was elected a Fellow of this Society in 1881, and in 1883 the 

 University of Cambridge conferred on him the degree of Doctor of 

 Science. The University also appointed him, in 1879, their representa- 

 tive Governor of King Edward the Sixth School, Birmingham. He 

 was one of the Founders of the Birmingham Philosophical Society, and 

 its President for two years. 



During the whole of his active life, after leaving Harrow, he gave 

 up much, perhaps too much, of his time to examination work, acting 

 for the Civil Service Commissioners, and occasionally for the University 

 of London, and for some years, ending in 1896, he held the office of 

 Mathematical Examiner to that University. 



