ALAN JARDINE WATSON
Alan Watson was my father's cousin; Alan being the son of his paternal uncle Talbot Scott Watson.
I visited him with my parents while I was a student in the mid-70s. They stayed at his house; me at his cleaning lady friend's house. His was a smart town house in the rather elegant Lansdowne Circus in Leamington Spa. He had retired as a surgeon; led a good social life; belonged to the RAC Club in London; was interested in politics (a curious mix of conservative with strong hints of liberalism leaning towards socialism – if I remember correctly). While we were in London, he came all the way to show us around. He took us to the RAC Club. A panic visit to a charity shop to get me a cheap jacket; a tie hurriedly borrowed from the doorman. My mother needed special permission to pass through those hallowed doors as a woman not on the staff. We didn't stay long. Then he drove us across Tower Bridge rattling the approach railings against the car door handles as we went. Unphased, we proceeded into Downing Street to see number 10 and he got firm but polite words from the policeman on duty. On this trip I found him very obliging but very formal. And on a subsequent trip to the UK I couldn't get an appointment to visit him in his busy social schedule.
But when he came out to see us in South Africa I saw another side of him. A jovial relaxed man who love wading in the shallows of the sea and estuaries; knotted handkerchief to protect his much receded hairline from the sun.
Accident and emergency surgeon; military surgeon and orthopaedic surgeon.
Born : 2 December 1905. Died : 17 January 1993
His obituary in 1993 on the Royal College of Surgeons website gives us insight into his professional life.
Alan Jardine Watson was born on 2 December 1905. He received his medical education at the Middlesex Hospital and qualified with the conjoint diploma in 1927. He graduated MB BS two years later. He served in the RAMC from 1942 to 1946 in North Africa, Italy and Britain. After the second world war he worked at the Middlesex Hospital and the British Postgraduate Medical School, before being appointed director of accident services in Coventry and consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Coventry and South Warwickshire from 1939 to 1966. An obituary in the British Medical Journalby J H Penrose says:
'Within two years of being appointed director of accident services and consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Coventry and Warwickshire Hospital in 1939, Alan Jardine saw the hospital almost completely destroyed in the air raids on the city. After his demobilisation from the army he returned to Coventry and set about rebuilding an accident service in hastily reconstructed buildings in the bombed out hospital.
'With the advent of the NHS he was appointed a member of Birmingham Regional Hospital Board and served on this for nine years, during which time he helped to plan Coventry's new hospital at Walsgrave. The accident and orthopaedic departments remained at the old hospital and, under his guidance and with the gradual opening of new facilities, had grown into a highly efficient unit by the time he retired.
'A bachelor, Alan had a keen sense of humour and was a charming and genial host who enjoyed entertaining friends at his home. He also enjoyed music and foreign travel, but in recent years a slowly progressive illness gradually deprived him of all his main interests.'
He died on 17 January 1993, survived by his sister Margaret.
This portrait is from the BMJ obituary. He looks so much like some of the Watsons in South Africa of that generation although they were cousins, not closer.
