[lit-ideas] Watson's Best Man (Was: Grice)
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:36:30 EST
A ps to rectify some material from my previous post.
As Strawson/Wiggins note in their memoir of Grice in the Proc. Brit. Ac.
(2000),
Kathleen Watson (Grice's wife) was the daughter of George Watson, a naval
architect, and
sister of James Steven Watson, a colleague of Grice's at St. John's.
Both had been "research Harmsworth fellows" at Merton. Chapman reminisces
in her bio of Grice:
"Kathleen [Watson] was from London,
but [she and H. P. Grice] had met through
an Oxford connection. Her [Tyneside-born]
brother, J[ames] S[teven] Watson had
held a Harmsworth senior scholarship shortly
after Grice and the two had become friends."
--- there is an excellent Harvard note on Watson visiting Harvard to
lecture in history. His speciality was Fox (his devotion, rather) and his
claim
to fame his volume on The Reign of George III for the History of England
Series. D. Ritchie may care to find out if "George Watson" is the _son_ of
the Glasgwegian George Watson, of naval architecture fame.
Chapman continues:
"James [Steven Watson] married during the
[Phoney, so-mis-called] war and, when
his best man was killed
on active service shortly
before the ceremony,
[R. Paul will nitpick here that 'he's no best man he who dies before the
performative ceremony]
called on [H.] Paul [Grice] at short notice
to perform the duty. Paul and
Kathleen met at the wedding."
(p. 29), and the rest is history, among other things: son Tim Grice (born
London) and before him, daughter Karen Grice McNicoll (born London).
Cheers,
JL Speranza
The Grice Club, etc.
* From the online note on Watson visiting Harvard:
"Watson says that he wonders whether he has wasted a certain part of his
life, whether he has failed to be the model English historian. Watson's
short-coming, as his professional eye sees it, is that he has always been
interested in a healthy number of non-historical subjects. "I like talking, I
like teaching, but I'm not fond of writing," he admits. "I like doing things;
I even like a bit of power."". Watson was Clark's tutor: “I found him a man
of many prejudices and little energy ... Instead of thinking, he tries to
grasp at any generalisation that is extreme enough to be indefensible. Then
he need only reiterate instead of having to defend it", said Watson of his
tutee.
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