Harold Gladstone Watkin

Who was Harold Gladstone Watkin?

Harold Gladstone Watkin, known by many of his contemporaries as "Watty", is considered one of the most pioneering English orthodontists of the early 20th Century.

Watkin first worked in the Equipment Department of the National Telephone Company and helped develop the first fully automatic telephone exchange in Staffordshire Potteries that opened in 1904. Also in 1904, Watkin built his own X-ray machine and took the earliest known radiograph in Stoke-on-Trent for Mr. King Alcock, F.R.C.S., a local surgeon, who had a female patient who worked in a textile factory and the end of a machine needle had snapped off in her finger.

In 1914, Watkin came to Liverpool where he studied at the Liverpool School of Dental Surgery and qualified in 1918 with an LDS Liv. From 1919 to 1930, Watkin practised at 95 Durning Road, Wavertree, Liverpool with a Mr. Cookson. He worked as a general dental practitioner and did some oral surgery, but his special interest was orthodontics. In 1921, he became a member of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics and a member of European Orthodontic Society in 1926.

Watkin performed the first successful jaw resection operation in the UK in 1928 with Mr.