Derek Watson (6 November 1948 – 17 September 2018) was a Scottish musicologist, actor, musician and bookseller.
[3] To mark the 2003 Scottish Opera production of Der Ring des Nibelungen Watson wrote a version of the story for children.
As chairman, Watson oversaw a declaration of independence in 1996 that saw the local organisation become the Wagner Society of Scotland.
[4] Watson delivered study courses annually for the Society on the life and works of Richard Wagner at Gartmore House until his death.
On 24 August 2024, the day after his Bruckner-Mahler concert at the Usher Hall during the Edinburgh International Festival conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with baritone Thomas Lehman,[11][12] Runnicles and Lehman presented a live performance and interview for the Society at the Runnicles family's parish, Greenbank Parish Church.
Book signings by authors included Alexander McCall Smith, whose second novel in the Sunday Philosophy Club series, Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, published in 2005, found the book's heroine Isabel Dalhousie visiting Watson in his capacity as bookseller.