1935

anna watts photo

Another key benefactor, Anna Watts (known as Mrs Hugh Watts in official correspondence), helped enormously in shaping psychology at Oxford through her donation of £10,000.

She made her gift very modestly – as former Head of Experimental Psychology Larry Weiskrantz commented, “her letter and cheque arrived without any embellishment or legal instructions, bearing simply the return address of a London hotel.” (Larry Weiskrantz, "‘Illusions and Delusions’ and Beyond: Fifty Years of Experimental Psychology at Oxford”, The Oxford Magazine, Fourth Week, Michaelmas Term 1986, p.6)

The sum she gave led to the foundation of the first independent Oxford Institute of Psychology, equipped with a modest, but much needed laboratory, and a lecture room to provide teaching for a Diploma course. Her friend William Brown said that Oxford would owe her “an immeasurable debt of gratitude.”