He took part in the BSA's excavations at Palaikastro,[5] and the survey of Lakonia[6] (see Artemis Orthia and Menelaion, Sparta); also at Rhitsona.

[9] During the First World War, he served as an intelligence officer attached to the Royal Navy in Crete.

[10][11] In December 1919, he was elected the first Bywater Professor of Byzantine and Modern Greek Language and Literature in the University of Oxford.

[12] Between 1928 and 1930, Dawkins served as president of the Folklore Society, and in his later life published three considerable collections of Greek folk tales.

[10] In 1907, Dawkins inherited the Plas Dulas estate in Llanddulas, Conwy, north Wales from a first cousin.