McGill Library
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H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Dawson, Geoffrey, 1874-1944
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Robinson, Geoffrey, 1874-1944
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1874-1944
History
George Geoffrey (formerly Robinson) Dawson was born on October 25, 1874, in Skipton, Yorkshire, England.
He was a British newspaper editor. He graduated from Magdalen College, Oxford (B.A., 1897) and in 1898, he was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He entered the civil service at the Post Office and, in 1899, he transferred to the South African Department of the Colonial Office under the Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. In 1901, he was promoted assistant private secretary to Chamberlain and later, he obtained the same position with the High Commissioner of South Africa, the imperialist Lord Milner. He participated in establishing the British administration in South Africa in the aftermath of the Boer War. Upon his return to England in 1911, he became a full-time staff member of The Times, and, in 1912, he was appointed its editor. After disagreements with the owner Lord Northcliffe, he stepped down as editor in 1919 but returned after Northcliffe's death in 1923 and stayed until his retirement in 1941. In 1917, he assumed by royal licence the name and arms of Dawson via his mother's eldest sister, Margaret Jane Dawson. In 1926, he was made an honorary Fellow of Magdalen College and received an honorary degree of DCL in 1934.
In 1919, he married Margaret Cecilia Lawley (1889–1969). He died on November 7, 1944, in London, England.