Talk:James Wreford Watson/Temp

James Wreford Watson/Temp
Born	(1915-02-08)February 8, 1915 Shensi, China
Died	September 18, 1990(1990-09-18) (aged 75)
Occupation	Geographer
Language	English
Nationality	Scottish, Canadian
Citizenship	Canadian
Notable awards	Governor General's Award, FRSC

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James Wreford Watson (February 8, 1915 – September 18, 1990) was a Scottish/Canadian geographer and cartographer, who served as Canada's Chief Geographer. He was also a Canadian poet and story writer who wrote under the name James Wreford, and who won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award, for his poetry.

Life and work

James Wreford Watson was born in Shaanxi, China, in 1915, the son of Evelyn Russell Watson and James Watson, a clergyman. Educated in China and Scotland, he received his B.A. from the University of Edinburgh in 1936. In 1937 he began teaching at the University of Sheffield.

In 1939 Watson married Jessie Black, a University of Edinburgh professor of education, who would bear him two children, Margaret and James. The couple moved to Canada the same year. Watson took a position at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, as the University's "first regular appointment in geography." He lectured at McMaster from 1939 to 1949. In 1945 he received a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

Watson "left for Ottawa in 1949, becoming chief geographer for the Government of Canada and holding a concurrent appointment at Carleton University, 1951-1954."

Watson became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1953. In 1954, though, he returned to Scotland, to take the University of Edinburgh's chair of geography.

He taught at the University of Edinburgh from 1954 to 1975. From 1975 to 1982 he was the director of the Centre for Canadian Studies, in Edinburgh. During that time he was also visiting professor at Queen's University (1959-1960, 1963, 1978), University of Manitoba (1969-1970), University of British Columbia (1971), Simon Fraser University (1976-1977), and the University of Calgary (1980-1981 and 1983).

Social Geography

Watson was a pioneer of social geography. He "applied ideas from the Chicago school of social ecology to gain greater understanding of what he termed 'social regions.' He stressed the need to recognize social distance as a major component within regional differentiation." And he engaged in "pioneering work that helped develop social geography as a systematic specialization, evolving from the concept of social distance."

Watson's work "not only recognized distinctive social regions within cities, but also translated this concept to a larger scale when working on regional differentiation within North America. Here his work emphasized social problems associated with multiracial development, the ‘energy crisis’, conservation of resources, urban decay, and suburban sprawl."

Recognition

Watson's first book of poetry, Of Time and the Lover, won the Governor General's Award for 1950.

Watson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1954, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1957.

The Canadian Geographers Association gave Watson a special award in 1987 for his services to Canadian geography.

He holds honorary degrees from five universities.

Bibliography

Prose

• General Geography (1953)
• North America, Its Countries and Regions (1963)
• ocial Geography of the United States (1979)

Poetry

• Unit of five: Louis Dudek, Ronald Hambleton, P.K. Page, Raymond Souster, James Wreford. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1944.
• Of Time and the Lover (1950)
• Countryside Canada (1979)