Remembering Karl Stewart Watson

I first met Karl Watson in the 60s as classmate of my mother, the late Dame Maizie Barker-Welch, at UWI Cave Hill, where they studied French and Spanish. He became a frequent visitor at our home. Then in the 70s we became colleagues in the Foreign Service. I served with him in Venezuela ( the blond hair blue eyed Bajan man and the little Afro’d Bajan woman).

While at the Frankfurt Consulate, he hosted my brother and myself on a trip through Europe. Then he came to my rescue when, on the way back to Barbados from Milan to Luxembourg by train to connect with Caribbean Airways, I did not know that the train was going to pass through France, for which a transit visa was necessary!! So at 1 am in the morning, being unceremoniously dumped off the train with my luggage, I spent the next few hours alone at the Basel station, trying to plan my next move.

After walking around the station all night, I realised that the only solution was to use the Swissair facility at the train station and book a flight to Frankfurt. I called Karl and the rest is history. I flew to Frankfurt once again hosted by Karl, and found out from him that Caribbean Airways had an unscheduled flight from Frankfurt to Barbados the next day. Karl to the rescue!!

Later, I had the privilege of introducing to him in January 2024 a classmate from Bristol University who was visiting, and who wanted more info on the Irish and “red leg” connections. He invited us to lunch at George Washington House and made a new fan in my friend Sally.

Karl was a special human being whose memory will be treasured and who will leave our national page the poorer for his absence. May he Rest in Peace. ¡ Vaya con Dios, Karl!

Sonja Welch

They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept, as I remembered, how often you and I
Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
A handful of grey ashes, long long ago at rest,
Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

(Translated from the Greek Callimachus)

As long as I live I will carry you in my heart Karl. Rest well beloved friend ❤️

I met Dr. Watson as a student at UWI Cave Hill. To date he remains one of the most influential people who have shaped my educational teaching practice. He was always willing to share his knowledge about the importance of documenting our rich cultural heritage. He was a resource person I could always count on. He was always a phone call or a skip / hop away. We shared many conversations that I will cherish. RIP though good and faithful servant. Until we meet again! Love always Stephanie, Dreamie 🐶& Happi 🐶

From Emeritus Professor Barry Higman, ANU and UWI, Mona
I first encountered Karl during his sojourn in Jamaica during the 1980s. We were colleagues in the Department of History at Mona and for some of those years occupied offices next to one another. These rooms were on the ground floor of the New Arts Building, where we generally followed an open-door policy, which enabled and perhaps encouraged a free flow of students, passing schoolchildren, the evening breeze, and the itinerant artist Ras Dizzy. Karl quickly established himself as a committed teacher and scholar, an accomplished linguist, open to new ways of teaching and learning, always willing to take on a challenge. Undoubtedly, he was a bit of a maverick but in those days at Mona he was certainly not the only one. He had some stiff competition. For me, and I believe also for Karl, they were exciting times. In particular there was the introduction of Archaeology, as part of the discipline of History, under the dynamic leadership of Kofi Agorsah. Karl happily tried his hand in the field, at the same time as promoting oral history and the analysis of texts. I like to think some of this experience fed into his time at Cave Hill and his growing preoccupation with heritage and the public understanding of the importance of the past in his beloved Barbados. Above all, I remember Karl as a performer, whether giving a lecture or leading a field trip, or indeed playing the role of George Washington. He embraced life and learning with immense enthusiasm, achieving much and no doubt leaving many wonderful projects and incomplete manuscripts. Hopefully others can bring some of these dreams to fruition. May he rest in peace, knowing he did what he could for his time.

From Emeritus Professor Patrick Bryan, UWI, Mona
Karl joined the Department of History at Mona in 1981. Initially, he taught Latin American History. The multilingual Karl had served in the Barbados foreign service – and certainly in Venezuela.
Karl, modest to a fault, had a variety of interests outside his involvement in Latin American History. He made a significant contribution to the development of the Archaeology programme at Mona, Caribbean heritage (Jamaica and Barbados), and had a strong commitment to the protection of the world environment.
His interest in Jamaican social history led him to mobilize a team of students to conduct interviews with Jamaicans who had witnessed the 1938 upheavals. The interviews were edited and published -with me – as Not for Wages Alone. Eyewitness Summaries of the 1938 Labour Rebellion in Jamaica (2003). He jointly edited and published with Howard Johnson The White Minority in the Caribbean (1998).
Following his stint at Mona he returned to Barbados, whose history he had previously documented as Barbados: The Civilised Island.

The Department of History and Archaeology- UWI, Mona, pays tribute to Dr Karl Watson, retired Senior Lecturer in History, Cave Hill, UWI.

Karl taught a number of courses during his ten years in the Mona History Department of the UWI. These included Latin American History (H331); Foundations of New world History (H101); Techniques of Historical Investigation (H3X6); and Ideas about God, Humanity and Nature (UC230). He was also a very active member of the Social History Project, functioning as its Oral History officer, and represented the Department on the boards of local cultural institutions.
His dedication to social history, the environment and heritage is well-known in Barbados. He also displayed that commitment in Jamaica. He collaborated with Patrick Bryan on the editorship of the Department’s Social History Project publication, Not For Wages Alone: Eyewitness Summaries of the 1938 Labour Rebellion in Jamaica published in 2003. As noted by Patrick Bryan, Watson was the main force in the mobilization and training of the UWI Mona history students to conduct interviews with Jamaicans who shared their memories of events and experiences during and after 1938. “The interviewers were all young people, under the age of 25, undergraduate history students in Karl’s course, (H3X6): Techniques of Historical Investigation. Evidently trained well, what was noticeable from the oral reminiscences was the lack of reticence on the part of the interviewees, who displayed a willingness to speak with the students”. Comprising some 35 interviews converted to narratives, this book captures some invaluable insights into that Jamaican experience – the lived, working lives and conditions of that time. It’s a book that has proven to be an invaluable teaching resource for undergraduate and graduate courses in history, including Oral History and Introduction to History. He also wrote and published an illustrative students’ guide in 1998 for Introduction to History, and shared with Mona.
Karl also led field trips to the Jamaican countryside. He along with then Archaeologist Kofi Agorsah led a group of history students and staff to the Mountain River Cave and the Worthy Park estate located in the parish of St Catherine in March 1989. His earlier analysis of the Taino pictographs at that location was published in the article, Amerindian Cave Art in Jamaica: Mountain River Cave”, Jamaica Journal, 1988-02, Vol.21 (1), and has also been useful for undergraduate and graduate history courses in methodology and Heritage Studies.
Karl also enthusiastically embraced archaeology at Mona, participating in the training in excavation with Barry Higman and Kofi Agorsah and the students taking the course H3X6: Techniques of Historical Investigation near Golden Grove in the parish of St Thomas.
In March 2011 Karl was invited back by the Department of History to deliver the 27th Annual Elsa Goveia Memorial Lecture at Mona. His lecture, titled, “The Modernized Caribbean Landscape and Its Implications for Heritage and Tourism: The Barbados Experience”, was delivered in the Philip Sherlock Centre, filled to capacity that evening. He received a standing ovation.
Rest in Peace, Karl.

Karl you remain one of a kind. Jane and I both send our deepest wishes to your family. We will miss you…

Karl, you have left us a legacy of love, honesty, trust and kindness, to mention just a few of the qualities of excellence which you demonstrated in everything you said or did.
Others will pay more glowing and eloquent tributes, but I can say that it has been a privilege to have known you and I am glad that our time on earth happened to coincide.
Rest in peace.

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Karl Stewart Watson