An Englishwoman, she was the daughter of Rev John Fletcher, a Weslyan minister.  At 24 she came to Dundee and married Rev Dr R.A. Watson of Butterburn United Presbyterian Church & Abercraig, West Newport.  She wrote for the British Weekly (Ministerial Miniatures), for Farringdon Hall Publications and for other journals. She is said to have written ‘books with a serious purpose’. Perhaps her best novel was A High Little World; she also wrote Lauder & Her Lovers (a story of modern life in Dundee), and eight or more other novels, mostly between 1892 and 1906. In her time she was a distinguished Dundee authoress, and held a prominent place in the literary world: “few pen names as familiar to the reading public as Deas Cromarty”.
Mrs Watson was a founder member of the Dundee Burns Club and a friend of Revd George Gilfillan, editor of The National Burns.  She was Gilfillan’s biographer, and she and her husband edited Revd Gilfillan’s unpublished manuscript. In 1900 the Watsons acquired and edited The Christian Leader. Later she wrote an article for the British Weekly in 1913 about Mary Slessor, who is celebrated on Dundee Women’s Trail. You can read it in Dundee City Archives GD.X.260.20.
She is said to have held pronounced political views: she was president of Dundee Women’s Liberal Association, a fluent and effective lecturer.  She enjoyed frequent holidays abroad.  Her obituary says: “The general public only knew the strong side of her personality but her personal friends knew her as a warm-hearted & loyal woman.” She died on 25th February 1918 and her picture is in her obituary.