# Steven Watson

Dr John Steven Watson FRSE Dlitt (20 March 1916 – 12 June 1986) was an English historian who served as Principal of the University of St Andrews from 1966–86. == Life == He was born on 20 March 1916 the son of George Watson and his wife, Elizabeth Layborn Gall.He was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School, then studied History at St John's College, Oxford where he graduated MA in 1939. He was a Harmsworth Senior Scholar at Merton College, Oxford from 1939 to 1942.After serving at the Ministry of Fuel and Power during the Second World War he returned to Oxford as a postgraduate student and tutor at Christ Church, where he then established an international reputation as an historian of the eighteenth century.