Watson Douglas Buchanan Forbes (16 November 1909 – 25 June 1997) was a Scottish violist and classical music arranger.
[2] Showing promise, at the age of 16 he was sent to the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied violin, viola and composition.
In 1930, he went to Písek in Czechoslovakia to study with Otakar Ševčík, whose intricate system of exercises revolutionised string playing; he felt he had benefited enormously from this period: "Sevcik taught me how to practise and how to tackle difficult passages."
He toured the UK in a piano quintet which included Denis Matthews, Frederick Grinke and James Whitehead.
In 1947, for instance, he gave the premiere of the Viola Sonata by his exact contemporary Robin Orr in Cambridge.
He made his Proms debut as a soloist on 14 September 1956 playing the world premiere of John Greenwood's Viola Concerto.
He also made many solo recordings, including the Viola Sonata by Arthur Bliss and the Sussex Lullaby by Alan Richardson, with the composer at the piano.