Geoffrey Dawson

Geoffrey Dawson
Born	George Geoffrey Robinson 25 October 1874 Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, England
Died	7 November 1944 (aged 70) London, England
Education	Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation	Civil servant, editor

George Geoffrey Dawson (25 October 1874 – 7 November 1944) was editor of The Times from 1912 to 1919 and again from 1923 until 1941. His original last name was Robinson, but he changed it in 1917.

Early life

Dawson was born 25 October 1874, in Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, the eldest child of George Robinson, a banker, and his wife Mary (nee Perfect). He attended Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. His academic career was distinguished; he took a First in Classical Moderations in 1895 and a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1897.^[1] In 1898 he was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a position he held for the rest of his life.^[2] He chose a career in civil service, entering in 1898 by open examination. After a year at the Post Office, he was transferred to the Colonial Office and in 1901 he was selected as assistant private secretary to Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. Later the same year Dawson obtained a similar position with Lord Milner, high commissioner in South Africa.^[3]

As Milner's assistant, Dawson participated in the establishment of British administration in South Africa in the aftermath of the Boer War. While there, he became a member of "Milner's kindergarten",^[4] a circle of young administrators and civil servants whose membership included Leo Amery, Bob Brand, Philip Kerr, Richard Feetham, John Buchan and Lionel Curtis. United by a common aspiration for Imperial Federation, all later became prominent in the "round table of Empire Loyalists".^[5]

Career in journalism

Milner wanted to ensure the support of the local newspapers after his return to England. He persuaded the owners of the Johannesburg Star to appoint Dawson as the paper's editor. Dawson later parlayed this post into a position as the Johannesburg correspondent of The Times; and then attracted the attention of Lord Northcliffe, owner of The Times, who appointed him editor of the paper in 1912.

Dawson was unhappy, however, with the way that Northcliffe used the paper as an instrument to further his own personal political agenda and broke with him, stepping down as editor in February 1919. Dawson returned to the post in 1923 after Lord Northcliffe's death, when the paper's ownership had passed to John Jacob Astor V. Bob Brand had become the Astors' brother-in-law, and it is thought that he introduced Dawson to the Astors' circle at Cliveden, the so-called Cliveden set presided over by Nancy Astor.

In his second stint as editor, Dawson began to use the paper in the same manner as Lord Northcliffe had once done, to promote his own agenda. He also became a leader of a group of journalists that sought to influence national policy by private correspondence with leading statesmen. Dawson was close to both Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain. He was a prominent proponent and supporter of appeasement policies, after Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He was a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship^[6] and under his editorship, The Times forbade any mention of German anti-semitism during the pre-war years when the Nazi Party ruled Germany.^[7] He was opposed to Zionism.^[8]

Dawson was a lifelong friend and dining companion of Edward Wood, later Lord Halifax, who was Foreign Secretary in the period 1938–1940. He promoted the policies of the Baldwin/Chamberlain governments of the period 1936–1940. Dawson died 7 November 1944 in London.

References

1. Oxford University Calendar 1905, Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1902, pp. 119, 175.
2. Dictionary of National Biography 1941-1950, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1959, p.204.
3. Dictionary of National Biography 1941-1950, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1959, p.204.
4. A.M. Gollin, Proconsul in Politics : A Study of Lord Milner in Opposition and in Power, London : Macmillan, 1964, pp. 41-2. ISBN 0218512929 ISBN 9780218512922.
5. Driver, C. J./ Sampson, Anthony (Foreward By). Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-Africanist, p. 20, ISBN 978-085255773-0.
6. Stevenson, William. A Man Called Intrepid. Globe Pequot (2000), p. 232. ISBN 978-1-58574-154-0.
7. Fantastic reality - Marxism and the politics of religion, 2007, p. 403. ISBN 978-1874123132
8. Berlin, Isaiah. Personal Impressions (2nd ed.) Princeton University Press, 2001, p. 97. ISBN 978-0712666015

External links

• Archival material relating to Geoffrey Dawson listed at the UK National Archives
• Catalogue of the papers of Geoffrey Dawson at the Bodleian Library, Oxford

Bibliography

• Wrench, John Evelyn (1955). Geoffrey Dawson and our times. Hutchinson.