Dawson was born 25 October 1874, in Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, the eldest child of George Robinson, a banker, and his wife Mary (née Perfect).
[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.
[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.
[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.
[7] Candid news despatches from Berlin by Norman Ebbutt that warned of warmongering were rewritten in London to support the appeasement policy.