Archibald Watson (surgeon)

Archibald Watson FRCS (27 July 1849 – 30 July 1940) was an Australian surgeon and professor of anatomy at the University of Adelaide.

Watson was born at Tarcutta, New South Wales, to Sydney Grandison Watson.^[1] He was educated at a national school in Sydney and then Scotch College, Melbourne 1861–67, where he was a champion light-weight boxer.^[2]

Watson met Baron Ferdinand von Mueller and was advised to take up a scientific career,^[1] Watson went to Europe to study medicine, obtaining the degrees of M.D., University of Göttingen, M.D., University of Paris, and F.R.C.S., England.

In 1883 he went to Egypt as surgeon with Hicks Pasha's Sudan force, and in 1885 became first Elder professor of anatomy at the newly founded medical school at Adelaide.^[3]

(showing an early interest in biological means of controlling the rabbit pest),^[4]

During this time, he was also responsible for the collection of human remains of Indigenous Australians, some of which were shipped to overseas institutions. (In the 21st century, the Museum started pursuing an active policy of repatriation and reburial of these remains.)^[5]

Watson lived on Thursday Island where died on 30 July 1940, three days after turning 91. He was unmarried. He is commemorated by a memorial lecture at the invitation of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. His portrait (by William Beckwith McInnes) hangs in the Adelaide University's anatomy department.^[2]

Additional sources listed by the Australian Dictionary of Biography:

Royal Society of South Australia, Transactions, 16, pt 2, 1893; Lone Hand, 1 January 1914; Adelaide University Magazine, 2, no 1, Sept 1919; Medical Journal of Australia, 12 October 1940, p 361, 27 September 1947, p 381, 29 April 1950, p 549; Adelaide Medical Students Society, AMSS Review, Aug 1961, p 19; R. G. Elmslie, 'The Colonial Career of James Patrick Murray', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery, 49, no 1, 1979; Sydney Morning Herald, 20–23 Nov 1872, 1 March 1873, 30 September 1930, 30 July 1936; Observer (Adelaide), 15 February 1896, 20 January 1900, 26 May 1928; News (Adelaide), 31 July 1940; Chronicle (Adelaide), 15 August 1940; GRG 2/5/23, 43 and D5390 [Misc] and PRG 128/12/7 and 30/5/7-9 (State Library of South Australia); Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Archives (Melbourne); Marston collection, folders 33–71, especially MS 1682/65 no 3847-49 (National Library of Australia); Attorney-General and Justice Dept, special bundles, 1836–76, 4/2698B (State Records New South Wales); Land Claims Commission 1875–82, claim no 606, 782 998 (National Archives of Fiji, Suva).

• Jennifer M. T. Carter, Painting the Islands Vermillion: Archibald Watson and the Brig "Carl", Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1999; ISBN 0-522-84853-2; 279 pp;

• The Archibald Watson Prize at The University of Adelaide
• Archibald Watson Medal and Lecture at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
• Photograph of Watson and students