He was 23 years old, and a corporal in the 187th Company, Corps of Royal Engineers, British Army during the First World War when the following deed took place at the Battle of Loos, for which he was awarded the VC.

On 13 October 1915 at Hohenzollern Redoubt, France, during a gas attack, when the trenches were full of men, Corporal Dawson exposed himself fearlessly to the enemy's fire to give directions to his sappers and to clear the infantry out of sections of the trench which were full of gas.

He too saved his colleagues from certain death by climbing out of the trench and bombing German infiltrators out of the British lines.

Both were considered local heroes in 1915 and were feted in Alloa and Tillicoultry in separate civic receptions, allied to recruitment drives.

His VC is held by the University of Glasgow where he earned his BSc and is displayed at the Hunterian Museum.