George Watson 1927-2013

George Grimes Watson, MA, Fellow of the College since 1961, formerly College and University Lecturer in English, died on 2 August 2013, aged 85.

Mr Watson studied at the University of Queensland, and at Trinity College, Oxford, coming to Cambridge in 1959 to take up an Assistant Lectureship in English.  He was admitted to membership of St John’s at that time, two years later being offered a Fellowship. 

Over a period of more than half a century he has published a number of books on literature, literary criticism, and political thought.  These include The Story of the Novel (1979), The Lost Literature of Socialism (1998), Never Ones For Theory? England and the War of Ideas (2000), Take Back the Past: Myths of the Twentieth Century (2007) and his last book, published this year, Heresies and Heretics: Memories of the Twentieth Century.  He was also General Editor of the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature, and was Sandars Reader in Bibliography 1991-92.

A funeral service was held in the College Chapel on Wednesday 21 August.  A Memorial Service is planned for next year, further details of which will be advertised in due course.