High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Cathcart Wason was a Scottish farmer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament in two countries: first in New Zealand and then in Scotland, after the failure of his colonial ventures. An unusually large man, he is noted both as an innovative farmer and for having passed his time in the House of Commons by knitting. Born in 1848 or 1849 in Colmonell, near Girvan, South Ayrshire, he was the son of Peter Rigby Wason and his wife Euphemia McTier. Peter Wason was a barrister and a successful farmer who converted much of his Corwar estate from moor to arable land; he had also served as a Member of Parliament. Cathcart Wason, as he was generally known, was educated at Laleham and at Rugby School, before emigrating to Canterbury in New Zealand, in 1868.