Geoffrey Dawson

George Geoffrey Dawson (October 25, 1874, Skipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire - November 7, 1944, London) 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 educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He chose a career in civil service in 1898 and became private secretary to Lord Milner, high commissioner in South Africa, in 1901.

Whilst in South Africa, Dawson became a member of Milner's kindergarten, a circle of young administrators and civil servants. These included Leo Amery, Bob Brand, Philip Kerr, Richard Feetham and Lionel Curtis. All later became prominent, in the " round table" of Empire Loyalists.

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 1919. Dawson returned to the post in 1923 after Lord Northcliffe's death, when the paper's ownership had passed to John Jacob Astor. 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.

1930s

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 is considered a major figure in the events that led up to the Munich agreement in 1938. He retired in 1941.

Dawson was also a life-long 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. He is thus heavily implicated in the policy of appeasement. The historian Oliver Denton, in "Appeasing Times: Geoffrey Dawson, The Times and the Appeasement of Nazi Germany 1935-1940" (2008) ,suggests that Dawson not only supported the appeasement of Nazi Germany, but used "The Times" to promote an accord with Germany. The book claims fresh evidence, on Dawson's relationship with many leading Nazis, including Joachim von Ribbentrop.