James Waterston (7 February 1879 – 28 April 1930) was a Scottish entomologist and minister of the United Free Church of Scotland who in 1917 was appointed as the first specialist hymenopterist at the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.
James Waterson was born on 7 February 1879 in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, and was educated as George Watson's College in Edinburgh before studying Divinity and Science at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with bachelor's degrees in both subjects, before being awarded a doctoral degree in science.
In May 1920 he joined the staff of the British Museum, Natural History as Assistant Keeper, First Class, in the Department of Entomology.
His main areas of work as a taxonomist were the Chalcidoidea, Mallophaga, or bird lice, and Siphonaptera, or fleas.
[4] His son, Andrew Rodger Waterston (1912–1996) was also a noted entomologist and malacologist and was, like his father, a curator at Department of Entomology at the British Museum, Natural History.