Watson and the Shark

A rather unusual coat of arms is that of Sir Brook Watson, 1st Baronet (7 February 1735 – 2 October 1807) who lost his leg to a shark and then had this incident recorded in his grant of arms when he became Lord Mayor of London. His wife was a Helen Campbell of Edinburgh.

Until 1963, Christ's Hospital owned his friend Copley's painting of the incident, now in Washington D.C.

A political satirist penned the following about it all:

                                             Oh! Had the monster, who for breakfast ate

                                             That luckless limb, his noblest noddle met,

                                             The best of workmen, nor the best of wood,

                                             Had scarce supply'd him with a head so good.