Glasgow printing pioneer and philanthropist honoured in King’s birthday honours.
John Watson has been honoured in the King’s Birthday Honours.
Doctor Watson OBE is to receive a CBE thanks to his role as a “businessman and philanthropist for Services to Education and to Charity”.
This latest honour comes just seven months after the University of Glasgow awarded an Honorary Doctorate to Doctor Watson for his charitable work and business achievements.
His notable gifts in recent years have included sizeable financial donations to the homelessness charity Social Bite run by his friend Josh Littlejohn MBE and the ongoing drive to restore the iconic Clyde steamer TS Queen Mary. He has also supported the national memorial in Glasgow’s Pollok Park to those who lost their lives in the covid-19 pandemic.
Doctor Watson remains one of Scotland’s foremost business voices who turned the eponymous Glasgow printing business John Watson and Company limited into a global name – notably in the production of labels for the drinks industry and Scotch whisky industry in particular – and became its Managing Director at just 28.
In 2006 Dr Watson received his OBE from Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth on the occasion of her 80th birthday for “Services to the Scottish Printing Industry and Charitable Purposes.”
Dr Watson said he was “honoured and elated” to be receiving a CBE and, having received the OBE 19 years ago, this latest honour “came as a considerable surprise.”