Geoffrey Dawson

For the English cricketer (born 1940), see Geoffrey Dawson (cricketer).

Geoffrey Dawson
Born	George Geoffrey Robinson (1874-10-25)25 October 1874 Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, England
Died	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 and Mary Robinson. George Robinson was a banker. He attended Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. 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.

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", a circle of young administrators and civil servants whose membership included Leo Amery, Bob Brand, Philip Kerr, Richard Feetham and Lionel Curtis. United by a common aspiration for Imperial Federation, all later became prominent in the "round table of Empire Loyalists".

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 and under his editorship, The Times forbade any mention of German anti-semitism during the pre-war years when the Nazi Party ruled Germany. He was opposed to Zionism.

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.

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

Media offices
Preceded by George Earle Buckle	Editor of The Times 1912–1919	Succeeded by Henry Wickham Steed
Preceded by Henry Wickham Steed	Editor of The Times 1923–1941	Succeeded by Robert Barrington-Ward