Dawson, Eva, 1865-1915

Eva, the last born of the nine children of the Dawson family, was considerably younger than most of the others. Born in 1865, she was closest in age to Rankine, who was her companion as a child, and she often defended him when her siblings were impatient with his erratic behavior. She claimed that his unstable behavior dated from his experience of being lost in the woods during a trip to the west, which imbalanced him, altering his character and producing “peculiarities of manners and ways.” Eva grew up largely in the east wing of the Arts building at McGill where her family had moved in 1855 before she was born. In 1890, she married Hope Tweedale Atkin (1856-1921), a Cambridge graduate from Cheshire, England. After the wedding in Montreal, they returned to Birkenhead in Cheshire where their first child was born in 1891, and in 1894 they moved to Lancashire where they resided for many years. They had three children: Sylvia Lois Dawson Atkin (1891-1968), Grace Margaret Dawson Atkin (born in 1892), and George Fawson Hope Atkin (1896-1916), who was killed during World War I.

When the family was in turmoil concerning the publication of her father’s biography after his death, she tried to convince them to cease the quarreling with Rankine in the interests of honouring Sir William and comforting their mother, but the older siblings maintained their opposition and she wound up siding with them.

When their mother died in 1913 she willed Birkenshaw, the family’s summer home in Little Metis to her daughter, Clare, who in turn willed it to Eva and her niece Lois Harrington. Eva died in 1915 in Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales.