CFHS code : PL582
Parish : St Paul
Inscription : In Loving Remembrance of LOUISA ADELAIDE daughter of Lieut Col HA ATCHISON and wife of WILLIAM WHITEHEAD WATTS MA Fellow of Sidney Sussex Col b 18 Apr 1852 d 13 Feb 1891 also In Loving Remembrance of WILLIAM WHITEHEAD WATTS MA ScD FRS Honary Fellow of Sidney Sussex Col Emeritus Prof of Geology at the Imperial Col of Science & Technology b June 7 1860 d July 30 1947
Monument : Column
Above information from Cambridge Family History Society Survey
Photo 2016
Monument
The Watts’ monument, in the foreground, is part of a double plot. The monument behind is of the Fearnsides and Bulmans.
It is located in the parish area of St Paul on the second row to the east of the western path.
Inscription
west face
In Loving Remembrance of LOUISA ADELAIDE daughter of Lieut. Col. H. A. ATCHISON
and wife of WILLIAM WHITEHEAD WATTS MA Fellow of Sidney Sussex Col
born 18 April 1852, died 13 February 1891
south face
Tender
Unselfish
east face
In Loving Remembrance of WILLIAM WHITEHEAD WATTS MA ScD FRS
Honary Fellow of Sidney Sussex Col
Emeritus Prof of Geology at the Imperial Col of Science & Technology
born June 7 1860 died July 30 1947
north face
Gentle
True
Relationships:watts-fearnsides-bulman-relationships
Louisa Adelaide Watts (née Atchison) (18 April 1852 – 13 February 1891)
Louisa was born in Brighton and was baptised at St. Nicholas’ Church on 11 July 1852. She was the daughter of Lt. Col. Henry Alexander Atchison (1806-1869) and his wife Louisa Sophia (née Richardson) (1813-1876). She grew up in Dorking, Surrey and married William Watts on 2 March 1889 at St. George’s Church, Bloomsbury. They had one daughter: Beatrix Mary Adelaide (1890-1975) and lived at 52 Bateman Street. Louisa died at home aged 38 years old.
Professor William Whitehead Watts (7 June 1860 – 30 July 1947)
William was born in Broseley, Shropshire and was baptised there on 1 July 1860. He was the son of Isaac and Maria (née Whitehead) Watts and his father was a farmer, and later a music teacher. He went to school at St. Chad’s College, Denstone, Uttoxeter which opened in 1873. The school was founded by Victorian philanthropist Rev. Nathanial Woodard who wanted to achieve ‘the union of classes by a common system of education’ and aimed to benefit a wide range of people, particularly the poorer middle classes. He went up to Sidney Sussex College in 1878 and was awarded a £40 exhibition (a lower grade of scholarship). Denstone college awarded him a further £20 exihibition, to mark the first occasion on which one of their pupils had been awarded an exhibition place at a University. The College subsequently gave William a scholarship for his academic achievements. He was awarded a B.A. in 1882, and an M.A. in 1885. He was a fellow at the college from 1884-1894 and lectured for the Cambridge University Extension Scheme for ten years. He began to study the geology of Shropshire and his first paper on the subject was published in 1885. He taught geology at the University of Oxford from 1888, then in 1891 he joined the Geological Survey, working first in Ireland and then on Charnwood Forest. He taught at Mason College and Birmingham University from 1897 to 1906, when he accepted the chair of geology at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington. Watts served as secretary (1898–1909) and as president (1910–12) of the Geological Society.
He married for a second time on 3 September 1894 to widow Rachel Atchison (née Rogers) (1853-1940) at Christ Church, Sutton, Surrey. Rachel was the widow of Louisa Watt’s brother Arthur, and the siblings had died a few weeks apart. Rachel had two sons from her first marriage and the couple had a daughter together: Marjorie Lilian Atchinson (1896-1984). The family lived at Holmwood, Sutton Coldfield (1901) and Hillside, Langley Park, Sutton (1911). William retired in 1930 and died at the Kingslea Nursing Home in Sutton aged 87 years old. He was cremated, and his ashes interred with his first wife Louisa at Mill Road Cemetery on 13 August.
More information about his life can be read here.
Sources:
Ancestry
Parish burial records
Wikipedia
by Claire Martinsen
[If you have any information about this family, please contact us at Friendsofmillroadcemetery@gmail.com]