Bruce Watkin obituary

My stepfather, Bruce Watkin, who has died aged 98, was one of the founder members of Mass Observation, the social research organisation set up to record everyday life in Britain.

Bruce was in at the beginning of Mass Observation in 1937, listening anonymously to ordinary conversations and watching people at work while keeping detailed diaries of what he saw and heard. He served with an eclectic bunch of talented colleagues that included the larger-than-life anthropologist Tom Harrisson, the film-maker Humphrey Jennings, and the poets Charles Madge and Kathleen Raine.