In 1939 Watson married Jessie W. Black (d.1989), a University of Edinburgh Professor of Education. Together they had two children, Margaret and James. The couple moved to Canada the same year.[1]
In 1949 Watson moved to Ottawa to become chief geographer for the Government of Canada, a position he held until 1954. He held a concurrent appointment at Ottawa's Carleton University from 1951 to 1954.[2]
Watson became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1953.[2] In 1954, though, he returned to Scotland, to take the University of Edinburgh's chair of geography.[3]
He died in the town of Castle Douglas in Scotland on 18 September 1990.
Social Geography
Watson was a pioneer of social geography. He applied the ideas of the Chicago school of social ecology to explain urban geography; the basic theory being that the urban landscape can be explained in terms of its society's social structure. His work "helped develop social geography as a systematic specialization." For instance, he "used the language of the social ecologists to recognize urban transition zones, cultural shatter belts, and distinct zones associated with the different socioeconomic groups within Hamilton."[4]
James Wreford's standing in Canadian poetry rests mainly on two publications. The first was the seminal 1944 anthology Unit of Five, which featured thirteen of his poems (alongside poetry by Louis Dudek, Ronald Hambleton, P. K. Page, and Raymond Souster). The Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) says that they show "his technical skill – particularly in the use of the quatrain"; but also his weaknesses: obscurantism, didactism, and a habit of asking questions, "which becomes ponderous at times."[1]
The DLB classified the poetry of Wreford's award-winning first book, Of Time and the Lover (1950), "as Christianpastoralelegy in that many of his poems portray man existing in a fallen world.... The poet seeks for himself and mankind ... redemption, renewed life, and hope." It also noted Watson's "use of climatological, geological, and geographicalimages and metaphors."[1]
Geography was also prominent in Wreford's second and last book of poetry, 1979's Countryside Canada. There the poet "responds through poetry to a series of places, from Newfoundland to the Yukon ... the geographer-poet attempts to demonstrate the strength of his culture and his own personal roots in it."[1]
^ abcd"Watson, J. Wreford, Archives and Collections, McMaster University, McMaster.ca, Web, Apr. 21, 2011.
^ abcdeGuy M. Robinson, "Appendix: An Appreciation of James Wreford Watson with a bibliography of his work," A Social Geography of Canada (Hamilton: Dundurn, 1991), 492 et passim, Google Books, Web, Apr. 21, 2011.
