Born in Chicago, Watson gained a BSc at the University of Chicago and a PhD at Indiana University before moving to the UK in 1951 to work at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory. It was here that he met Francis Crick. In 1953, while Watson was living in Clare’s Memorial Court, he and Crick deduced the double helix structure of DNA, a crucial breakthrough building on the work of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.
In 1962, Watson, Crick and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine ‘for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material’.
Watson was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Clare College in 1967 in recognition of his scientific work. Other accolades included the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977), the Copley Medal of the Royal Society (1993), and an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2002). Watson visited Clare College a number of times, including in 2005 to unveil a sculpture of the DNA double helix on Memorial Court lawn, and in 2018 to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Master of Clare College, 1815-1856
Born in February 1775 at Sutton Coldfield. The son of William, Master of Sutton Coldfield Grammar School
Admitted as a pensioner at Clare on 30 April 1793
B.A. (18th Wrangler; aegrotat) 1797
M.A. 1800
B.D. 1808
D.D. 1816
Elected to a Fellowship in 1799
Ordained Deacon at Peterborough in 1800 and as Priest in 1801
Presented to the College living at Litlington in 1812
May 1815 promoted to the combined livings of Fornham All Saints and Westley. He resigned from these livings upon his election as Master in July 1815
Vice-Chancellor, 1817-18 and 1832-3
President of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1843-44
He married Anne, the daughter of the Rev. T.V. Gould, his predecessor in the living at Westley
Died 4 January 1856
Baptised on 22 August 1734 at Denton in Lincolnshire. He was the only son of Colonel William Welby of Denton and his wife Catherine.
Educated at Eton School, before being admitted to Clare College as a Fellow Commoner in 1753 and then at the Middle Temple in 1756.
Member of Parliament for Grantham from 1802 to 1806. He also served as High Sheriff of Lincolnshire from 1796 to 1797.
Matriculated at Clare, 1944.
Born on 9 December 1667, the son of Josiah, Rector of Norton-juxta-Twycross, Leicestershire
School - Tamworth
Admitted as a sizar at Clare on 30 June 1686
Matriculated - 1687
B.A. 1689/90
M.A. 1693
Fellow, 1691
Sept 1693 - Ordained deacon (Lichfield)
Chaplain to Bishop Moore, of Norwich
1697-98 - Rector of Drayton, Norfolk
1698-1703 - Vicar of Lowestoft and Kessingland, Suffolk
1702-1710 - Succeeded Newton as Lucasian Professor and one of the first to popularise the Newtonian theories
1707 - Boyle Lecturer
30 Oct 1710 - Banished from the University for an essay which expounded Arian doctrines
Went to London and lectured there and at Bristol, Bath, and Tunbridge Wells on various subjects, comprising meteors, eclipses, and earthquakes, connecting them more or less with the fulfilment of biblical prophecies
Advocated a number of theories of which the most famous was that the Tartars were the lost tribes of XISR
Married Ruth, daughter of Revd George Antrobus, Master of Tamworth School in 1699
Died on 22 August 1752, aged 84
Born in Corby, Lincolnshire, the son of the Revd Francis
Admitted to Clare College on 11 May 1767 as a sizar
B.A. 1771
M.A. 1774
Rector of High Halden, Kent, 1780-1806
Vicar of Bethersden
Died 30 May 1806
Master of Clare College, 1736-1762
Born in Grantham, Lincs.
Admitted sizar at Clare on 3 July 1708 and matriculated in 1708.
B.A. 1711/2
M.A. 1715
D.D. 1728
Fellow, 1714
Taxor, 1720
Master of Clare, 1736-62 .
Vice-Chancellor, 1736-7, and 1751-2.
Ordained deacon (London) on 19 December 1714; priest (Ely) 23 September 1716.
Vicar of Madingley, Cambridgeshire , 1721-30 .
Vicar of Everton, Bedfordshire , 1730-2 .
Vicar of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, Middlesex , 1731-62 .
Prebend of St Paul's, London, 1732-62 .
Sub-dean of York, 1750-62 .
Died in College, 16 September 1762.
Left his fortune for the building of the College Chapel.
Born at Old Warden, Bedfordshire in 1795 the eldest son of the Revd Edmund, Rector of Campton with Shefford, Bedfordshire
Admitted as a pensioner at Clare College on 1 July 1814
Matriculated Michaelmas 1814
B.A. 1818; M.A. 1821
Ordained deacon, 1819; priest, 1821
Rector of Campton with Shefford, Bedfordshire (succeeding his father), 1839-64
Founder of the Bedford Library; Hon. Secretary and Vice-President
Died 7 August 1864, aged 68
Born in 1804, the 3rd son of the Revd Edmund Williamson, Rector of Campton, Bedfordshire
School - Westminster
Admitted as a pensioner at St John's College on 15 June 1820 but did not reside
Admitted as a pensioner at Clare on 2 Sept 1820
Matriculated Michaelmas 1821
Scholar, 1822
Bell Scholar, 1822
B.A. (2nd Wrangler, 2nd Smith's prize) 1825
M.A. 1828
B.D. 1843
Fellow, 1827-50
Tutor, 1839-50
Admitted ad eundem at Oxford, 1845
Admitted at Lincoln's Inn, 10 June 1825
Called to the Bar, 18 May 1830
Practised as an Equity Draftsman and Conveyancer until his return to Clare in 1839
Ordained deacon (Lichfield), 27 June 1841; priest (Ely), 5 June 1842
Rector of Datchworth, Hertfordshire, 1849-75
9 April 1850 married Jane Hutchinson, daughter of William Ferguson, M.D., Inspector-General of Military Hospitals
Died on 17 December 1875