He was educated at the fee-paying Latymer Upper School and later won a scholarship to study Mathematics and Natural Sciences at St. John’s College, Cambridge.
His studies were interrupted by World War I, during which he served with the Royal Field Artillery and later as an Assistant Agricultural Officer in France.
He used his network of wartime connections to help acquiring wheat samples from remote regions and local markets across the British Empire.
Watkins also authored several important books and papers, including "The Origin of Cultivated Plants," "Heredity and Evolution," and "The Wheat Species; a Critique."
This encompassing 827 distinct landraces, has been the focus of extensive research efforts to understand and utilise the genetic diversity of wheat.