Background
Watson was born on 20 May 1953. She grew up in a seaside town and graduated in classics at the University of Street Andrews.
Watson was born on 20 May 1953. She grew up in a seaside town and graduated in classics at the University of Street Andrews.
University of Street Andrews.
From 2007 until 2016, she was Archdeacon of Canterbury. She was Archdeacon of Buckingham between 2002 and 2007. She then did a preparatory year of theology at the University of Oxford and then returned to Street Andrews for a research degree.
She was ordained as a deacon in 1987 and as a priest in 1994.
From 2002 to 2007 she was the Archdeacon of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford. Succeeding Patrick Evans on his retirement, Watson was announced in January 2007 to be the next Archdeacon of Canterbury, the first woman in the position and only the second woman to be a residential canon at Canterbury Cathedral.
She was installed during Choral Evensong at the cathedral on 28 April 2007. On 21 March 2013, she enthroned Justin Welby as the 105th Archbishop of Canterbury.
She was the first woman to carry out that ceremony.
Watson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Divinity (HonDD) by the University of Kent in November 2013. She resigned as Archdeacon of Canterbury on 6 January 2016.
