Geoffrey Dawson
Editor of The Times, principal media voice of the Milner Group (1874-1944)
Also known as: Dawson, Geoffrey Dawson, George Robinson
Geoffrey Dawson (born George Robinson; 1874-1944) was a member of Milner's Kindergarten and Editor of The Times of London for most of the period 1912-1941, the years during which the The Milner Group shaped the British press response to the Versailles settlement, Indian self-government, and — most consequentially — German rearmament. Quigley calls him 'as close to Milner personally as any member of the Kindergarten' (AAE 53) and treats his editorship of The Times as the Group's principal media instrument during the appeasement decade.
Life
Born George Robinson in 1874, Dawson — he changed his name from Robinson in 1917 on inheriting an estate — was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, and elected a Fellow of All Souls in 1898. He joined the Colonial Office under Joseph Chamberlain in 1898, then became private secretary to Milner in South Africa in 1901, serving until 1905. He stayed in South Africa as editor of the Johannesburg Star — the Kindergarten's principal paper during the formation of the Union — before returning to London in 1910 (AAE 52).
Editor of The Times
Dawson was appointed Editor of The Times in 1912 and held the post (with a 1919-1923 break during which he was driven out by the new proprietor Northcliffe) until 1941. Quigley reckons that 'this group dominated The Times from 1890 to 1912 and has controlled it completely since 1912 (except for the years 1919-1922)' (T&H 146). When the Astors bought The Times from the Harmsworth estate in 1922, Dawson was reinstated, and the paper's editorial line passed back into the Group's hands. The Times of the 1930s — which Quigley identifies as the chief vehicle for the appeasement line — was edited by Dawson, written into by Lothian and other Group figures, and read off the country-house conversations at Cliveden.
Dawson and Milner
Quigley quotes the Times's obituary of Dawson on the closeness of the relationship with Milner: 'To none was Milner's heart more wholly given than to Dawson; the sympathy between the older and the younger man was almost that of father and son, and it lasted until [Milner's] death' (AAE 53). For Quigley, this personal devotion translated into an editorial line in The Times that was, decade by decade, recognizably the line of the The Milner Group: imperial federation in the 1910s, dominion-status colonial reform in the 1920s, appeasement in the 1930s.
Appeasement and Munich
Dawson's editorial decisions during the Czech crisis became, in Quigley's reading, the test case for the Group's appeasement reflex. The Times's leader of 7 September 1938 — which suggested that the Czechs cede the Sudetenland to Hitler — was widely understood at the time as a trial balloon floated on behalf of the Chamberlain government. Quigley locates this in the broader pattern of joint editorial-and-diplomatic action by the Group's inner circle: 'Dafoe persuaded the Canada Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, to accept his ideas and then brought in Long and Dawson (Editor of The Times). Dawson negotiated the agreement with Milner, Smuts, and others' (T&H 161). After Churchill's succession in 1940 the Times's appeasement-era stance became politically toxic; Dawson resigned in 1941 and died in 1944. The Tragedy and Hope index lists him at pp. 581, 582 — the core appeasement-era discussion (T&H 1331).
Cited in
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 42 Quigley
Milner, Abe Bailey, George Parkin, Lord Selborne, Jan Smuts, A. J. Glazebrook, R. H. Brand (Lord Brand), Philip Kerr (Lord Lothian), Lionel Curtis, Geoffrey Dawson, H. A. L. Fisher, Edward Grigg, Leopold Amery, and Lord Astor.
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 52 Quigley
Geoffrey Dawson (1874-1944), who changed his name from Robinson in 1917, was also one of the innermost members of the Milner Group. A member of the Colonial Office under Chamberlain (1898-1901), he became for five years private secretary to Milner in South Africa (1901-1905).
- anglo-american-establishment · p. 53 Quigley
Dawson was probably as close to Milner personally as any member of the Kindergarten, although Amery must be regarded as Milner's political heir. The Times' obituary of Dawson says: 'To none was Milner's heart more wholly given than to Dawson; the sympathy between the older and the younger man was almost that of father and son.'
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 146 Quigley
this group dominated The Times from 1890 to 1912 and has controlled it completely since 1912 (except for the years 1919-1922). Because The Times has been owned by the Astor family since 1922, this Rhodes-Milner group was sometimes spoken of as the 'Cliveden Set.'
- tragedy-and-hope · p. 161 Quigley
Dafoe persuaded the Canada Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, to accept his ideas and then brought in Long and Dawson (Editor of The Times). Dawson negotiated the agreement with Milner, Smuts, and others.