John Watson was born in Glasgow in 1872, the son of Joseph Watson, licensed grocer, and Hannah Peacock. He was articled to John Hamilton in Glasgow from 1887 to 1893, studying at Glasgow School of Art (1888 to 1894) and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. Having won a Royal Academy 'bone' (an inscribed ivory plaque) which provided free admission to the Royal Academy Schools, he moved to London as assistant to Niven & Wigglesworth where he remained until 1897. After a study tour of Italy he commenced practice at 231 St Vincent Street in Glasgow in 1898.
In the following year Watson took into partnership a younger colleague at Niven & Wigglesworth's, David Salmond. Salmond was born in 1876, the son of David Salmond, described as an 'agent' and his wife, Hannah Kennedy Millar, who were prominent in literary and musical circles in Glasgow and South Africa where the elder Salmond had business connections. He was articled to John Gordon in Glasgow from 1891 to 1896 and attended classes at Glasgow School of Art under William James Anderson and at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. After the period of his apprenticeship he spent a year with Niven & Wigglesworth before leaving for South Africa, perhaps with a view to settling there; but following the outbreak of the Boer War he returned to Glasgow where he worked briefly in various as yet unidentified offices before joining Watson in partnership.
Both partners were admitted LRIBA in the mass intake of 20 July 1911, proposed by John Bennie Wilson and the Glasgow Institute of Architects, which they had joined in 1907. Watson soon sought elevation to Fellow, and was elected on 2 December 1912, his lead proposer being Henry Edward Clifford with whom they shared an office and assistants, the others being James Miller and William Gardner Rowan. Salmond was admitted FRIBA on 9 June 1913, his proposers being Clifford, Alexander Nisbet Paterson and Herbert Hardy Wigglesworth.
In 1914 Watson & Salmond took into partnership another employee of Niven & Wigglesworth, James Henry Gray (born 1885), the practice having won the competition for the extension of Glasgow City Chambers. It was for this accomplished French Renaissance design that in 1927 the firm, renamed Watson, Salmond & Gray, was awarded the first RIBA Scottish Architecture medal for the best city building completed within the preceding five years. Much of the work of the practice was in Glasgow but further afield they won commissions for factories and other works in the Midlands and the south west of Scotland.
Gray was born in Glasgow in 1885 of old Quaker stock and was educated at Bootham School, York, where he excelled on the football field. In 1903 he was articled to Fred Rowntree, also a member of the Society of Friends, who had been based in London since the dissolution of his partnership with Malcolm Stark in 1899. In 1906 he moved to Glasgow as assistant to Alexander Nisbet Paterson of Campbell Douglas & Paterson, enabling him to study at the Glasgow School of Architecture. He returned to London in 1909, joining Niven & Wigglesworth as assistant. He passed the qualifying exam in 1910 and was admitted ARIBA on 27 February 1911, his proposers being Wigglesworth, Niven and Rowntree. From 1912 to 1914 he worked as assistant with Watson & Salmond in Glasgow, before being taken into partnership.
In 1925 Henry Edward Clifford retired and his practice was merged with that of Watson Salmond & Gray, making them architects to the Victoria Infirmary.
Watson was active in professional circles: he served on the RIBA Council and as an external examiner, was elected ARSA in 1929, and was President of the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts (1915-18) and of Glasgow Art Club (1931-32), Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights and Governor of Glasgow School of Art. He retired c. 1932, partly due to ill-health and partly to give more time to RIAS business: he was President when he died of a cerebral haemorrhage in the Victoria Infirmary on 24 August 1936. His address at that date was 12 Northland Drive, Scotstoun. He had been twice married: first to Elizabeth Cumming, and later to Margaret Pollock Spence.
Salmond, who was fairly well off, had retired early in 1933 to concentrate on his musical interests, being among other things on the management committee for the Scottish Orchestra, but his retirement was brief as he died at his home, Auchlyne, Fairlie, on 1 September 1938. He left moveable estate of £10,126 4s 9d in the UK and was survived by his wife Dorothy Gamble Herbert.
Salmond's place as partner was taken in 1934 by Watson's son, John Watson, Junior. Born in 1903, from 1920 he had been articled to Burnet Son & Dick where he worked on the Zoology Building at the University of Glasgow, and where Sir John Burnet, a friend of his father, had taken a personal interest in his development. While at Burnet's Watson Junior studied at the Glasgow School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Technical College. There he won several medals and bursaries, including a minor scholarship which enabled him to spend four weeks in France in 1924-25, and the John Keppie Travelling Scholarship which funded a year's study in Italy, France and Spain in 1925-26. In 1926 he settled in London as a senior draughtsman to Niven & Wigglesworth, but because of the dissolution of that partnership he moved in the following year to the office of Sir John William Simpson, and in 1929 to that of Emanuel Vincent Harris. Whilst with Harris, he travelled again to Italy, and to Sicily and the south of France, for seven weeks in 1930; and served as editor of the RIAS Quarterly in 1931 and 1932. He enjoyed his London years and it was with some regret that he returned to Glasgow with a view to taking up the partnership vacated by Salmond's departure.
In 1936 Gray became seriously ill and his health did not recover. He died at Strone on 17 August 1938, leaving moveable estate of £5830 12s 11d. His usual address at that date was 27 Heriot Street, Pollokshields. John Watson Junior then became sole partner at the age of 35 having been effectively in full charge of the practice since 1936, and at about that time he took over the practice of Alexander Nisbet Paterson on his retirement.
Watson Junior was a convinced classicist of the late Burnet-Vincent Harris school throughout his career. He was elected FRIBA on 16 November 1943, his proposers being William James Smith, John Stewart, A N Paterson and Andrew Graham Henderson. At that time his office was at 111 Union Street, Glasgow and he was living at Old Mains, Cadzow Avenue, Giffnock, a fine mid-18th-century country house which he had, with characteristic determination, rescued from demolition when its grounds became an exclusive housing estate. He was an important collector of Glasgow School paintings and architectural books throughout his life, and he and his much taller English wife Beryl were most generous hosts. Their later years were clouded by the death of their architect son who died while still a student.
Watson Junior retired c.1970 as a result of pneumonia which left him with a damaged heart. He and his wife then gave up their house at Giffnock and moved to a large flat at Netherlee. He died in 1977 and was survived by his wife.
In the late 1970s there were three partners in the practice William MacDonald, John McBride and Archie Crawford. By the 1980s MacDonald seems to have left. Besides the jobs listed they undertook restoration work for the National Trust for Scotland and the Trustees of Dollar Academy, housing rehabilitation work for Glasgow District Council and acted as environmental consultants for the Scottish Development Agency. They were also architects for Scottish & newcastle Breweries, William Grant & Son Ltd, William Teacher Ltd and Arthur Guiness, Glasgow.