William Whitehead Watts was born at Broseley in Shropshire in 1860, and passed the critical part of his school life at Denstone. Here he came under the influence of the Rev. D. Edwardes, who taught him physics and chemistry, infected him with a love of science, and stimulated him to try for a scholarship at Cambridge. In spite of the winning of an exhibition, afterwards converted into a scholarship at Sidney Sussex College, supplemented by an exhibition from his old school, his maintenance at Cambridge was only accomplished by much self-sacrifice on the part of his parents.