From Companion to Gaelic Scotland – “Born Easter Ross. Educated Aberdeen and Oxford. Rector, Inverness Royal Academy and Edinburgh’s Royal High School. Professor of Celtic at the University of Edinburgh, 1914–38. His major work was The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland (1926). He also put the study of the Book of the Dean of Lismore on a scholarly basis, edited the fine anthologies Rosg Gàidhlig (1915) and Bàrdachd Ghàidhlig (1918), founded the Scottish Gaelic Texts Society and inspired much good scholarship.”

Father of James Carmichael Watson. Son-in-law of Alexander Carmichael. Husband of Ella Carmichael.