Robert Watson was born in Leith, Midlothian, Scotland on 31 July 1865 and was articled to Robert Paterson (1825-1889) of Robert Paterson & Son in Edinburgh from 1881 to 1884. He then worked as an assistant to Hippolyte Jean Blanc (1844-1917) in Edinburgh from 1884 to 1887; and to Hew Maitland Wardrop (1856-1887) and Robert Rowand Anderson (1834-1921) of Wardrop & Anderson from 1887 to 1890 in Edinburgh. During these years he was also employed as an assistant to James Marjoribanks MacLaren (1853-1890) in London.
Watson qualified as an architect in 1887 and in 1890 with the Glaswegian architect William Newton Dunn (1859-1934) he formed the partnership, Dunn & Watson, to continue the London practice of MacLaren who had died that year.
Over the next 22 years the practice worked on commissions in many parts of England, and in Scotland, South Africa and Romania.
In 1912 William Curtis Green (1875-1960) joined the practice which was renamed Dunn, Watson & Curtis Green.
Watson was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1888 and Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA) in 1904. He died in Farnham, Surrey, England in February [or March] 1916. Following his death the practice became Dunn & Curtis Green. This partnership was dissolved in 1919 when Dunn retired to Kenya
See: Dictionary of Scottish Architects 1660-1980; and Historic Environment Scotland [links below]
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Dunn, William. ‘Obituary’. RIBA Journal vol. 23, 19 February 1916 pp. 142-143
Gray, A. Stuart. Edwardian architecture: a biographical dictionary. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1985