George Geoffrey Dawson (25 October 1874 – 7 November 1944) was editor ofThe Times from 1912 to 1919 and again from 1923 until 1941. His original last name was Robinson, but he changed it in 1917. He married Hon. Margaret Cecilia Lawley, daughter ofArthur Lawley, 6th Baron Wenlock, in 1919.

Dawson was born 25 October 1874, inSkipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, the eldest child of George Robinson, a banker, and his wife Mary (née Perfect). He attendedEton College andMagdalen College, Oxford. His academic career was distinguished; he took a First inClassical Moderations in 1895 and a First inLiterae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1897.^[1] In 1898 he was elected a fellow ofAll 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 thePost Office, he was transferred to theColonial Office and in 1901 he was selected as assistant private secretary to Colonial SecretaryJoseph Chamberlain. Later the same year Dawson obtained a similar position withLord 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 theBoer War. While there, he became a member of "Milner's kindergarten",^[4] a circle of young administrators and civil servants whose membership includedLeo Amery,Bob Brand,Philip Kerr,Richard Feetham,John Buchan andLionel Curtis. United by a common aspiration forImperial Federation, all later became prominent in the "round table of Empire Loyalists".^[5]

Milner wanted to ensure the support of the local newspapers after his return to England. He persuaded the owners of theJohannesburg Star to appoint Dawson as the paper's editor. Dawson later parlayed this post into a position as theJohannesburg correspondent ofThe Times in February 1911; and then attracted the attention ofLord Northcliffe, owner ofThe Times, who appointed him editor of the paper in July 1912.^[6]

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 toJohn 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-calledCliveden set presided over byNancy Astor.^{[citation needed]}

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 bothStanley Baldwin andNeville Chamberlain. He was a prominent proponent and supporter ofappeasement policies, afterAdolf Hitler came to power in Germany. He was a member of theAnglo-German Fellowship.^[7] Candid news despatches from Berlin byNorman Ebbutt that warned of warmongering were rewritten in London to support the appeasement policy.^[8][9] Dawson explained toLord Lothian on 23 May 1937: "I should like to get going with the Germans. I simply cannot understand why they should apparently be so much annoyed withThe Times at this moment. I spend my nights in taking out anything which I think will hurt their susceptibilities and in dropping little things which are intended to soothe them".^[10]

In March 1939, however,The Times reversed course and called for war preparations.^[11] Dawson was a lifelong friend and dining companion ofEdward Wood, later Lord Halifax, who wasForeign Secretary in the period 1938–1940. He promoted the policies of the Baldwin/Chamberlain governments of the period 1936–1940. Dawson retired in September 1941 anddied on 7 November 1944 in London. He was succeeded as editor byRobert Barrington-Ward.

• "The Prospects of a United South Africa" .The Empire and the century. London: John Murray. 1905. pp. 521–538.

• Fleming, N. C. "The Press, Empire and Historical Time: The Times and Indian self-government, c. 1911–47."Media History 16.2 (2010): 183–198.
• McDonough, Frank. "The Times, Norman Ebbut and the Nazis, 1927–37."Journal of Contemporary History 27#3 (1992): 407–424.
• Martel, Gordon, ed.The Times and Appeasement: The Journals of A L Kennedy, 1932–1939 (2000).
• The Office of the Times.The History of The Times: The 150th Anniversary and Beyond 1912–1948 (2 vol. 1952), passim.
• Riggs, Bruce Timothy."Geoffrey Dawson, editor of "The Times" (London), and his contribution to the appeasement movement" (PhD dissertation, U of North Texas, 1993) online, bibliography pp 229–33.
• Wrench, John Evelyn (1955).Geoffrey Dawson and our times. Hutchinson.
• Marlowe, John.Milner, Apostle of Empire, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976

EnglishWikisource has original works by or about:

George Geoffrey Dawson

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

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