Researching Richard Watson

Watson was born at Bakewell, Derbyshire. He was educated at Denstone College where he was in the cricket team from 1936 to 1939. He made his debut for Derbyshire in the 1947 season against Worcestershire in May when he was not out for 12 and took two catches. He played five more first-class games that season and also played in the Derbyshire second XI in 1947 and 1948. His best score of 25 not out was against the South Africans.

Watson was a left-hand batsman who played eleven innings in six first-class matches with an average of 8.50 and a top score of 25 not out. He was a leg-break bowler, but did not bowl in a first-class game.

Watson died at Penrhosgarnedd, Caernarvon, Wales at the age of 65.

Watson was the fourth and youngest son of Lewis Thomas Watson, 2nd Baron Sondes (1794–1874), by his marriage to the heiress Mary Elizabeth Milles, of North Elmham. His elder brother changed his name to Milles.

Watson was commissioned into the 11th Hussars, a cavalry regiment, and served in the Peninsula. He first stood for parliament at the 1826 general election in Canterbury, where he was nominated in his absence by the Reformers and polled just 107 votes. However, at the 1830 general election he topped the poll at Canterbury, with 1,334 votes, was returned unopposed in 1831, and again won a contested election in 1832, when one of the other candidates was the madman John Nichols Thom, calling himself Sir William Courtenay, otherwise 'Tom of Truro', who gained 375 votes. Watson was so dismayed by the support given to this opponent that he declined to stand again at the 1835 general election.

On 21 December 1839 Watson married Lavinia Jane, a daughter of Lord George Quin, granddaughter of Thomas Taylour, 1st Marquess of Headfort, and great-niece of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer. They had three sons and two daughters, the last of whom was posthumous:*George Lewis Watson, married Laura Maria (d. 1893), daughter of Sir John Hobart Culme-Seymour, 2nd Baronet, in 1867, without issue*Edward Spencer Watson (d. January 1889), married Mary Blanche Hall on 28 September 1871 and had issue*Rev. Wentworth Watson (1 March 1848 – 5 July 1925), vicar of Monmouth, St. Thomas', Oxford, and Abingdon, married Eveleen Frances Stopford, sister of Albert Stopford, on 23 April 1903*Mary Georgiana Watson, married Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, 3rd Baronet on 16 October 1866*Lavinia Grace Watson (1852–1933), married Baron Eugen von Roeder (1847–1938) on 14 July 1875 and had issue

In 1849, he inherited from his childless brother Henry the remaining Northamptonshire estates of the family, centered on Rockingham Castle, where he had lived since 1836.

On 7 July 1852 he was returned at the general election to the Commons as MP for Peterborough, but died a few weeks later on 24 July 1852, at the age of 52, at the Baths in Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt. His body was brought home to England and buried at Rockingham, Northamptonshire.

He recorded some operatic music, and over a half dozen of his recordings with D'Oyly Carte remain in print, including his 1932 recording of King Hildebrand in Princess Ida and his recordings of the Learned Judge, Sergeant of Police, Pooh-Bah, Sir Despard Murgatroyd, Wilfred Shadbolt and Don Alhambra, released in 1949 and 1950.

He has written 5 books about the future and is the founder of What's Next, a website that documents global trends. He has been a blogger on innovation for Fast Company Magazine and has written about creativity, innovation, and future thinking for a variety of publications including Future Orientation (Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies) and What Matters (McKinsey & Company). He is a proponent of scenario planning and an advocate of preferred futures, believing it is incumbent upon organisations to create compelling visions of the future and work towards their realisation.

In addition to writing, Watson works with the Technology Foresight Practice at Imperial College London and Lectures at London Business School and the King's Fund. He is also a network member of Stratforma and has worked with the Strategic Trends Unit at the UK Ministry of Defence, the RAND Corporation, CSIRO, the Cabinet Office and the Departments of Education in the UK and Australia.