George Geoffrey Dawson (25 October 1874 – 7 November 1944) 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. He married Hon. Margaret Cecilia Lawley, daughter of Arthur Lawley, 6th Baron Wenlock in 1919. Early life 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). He attended Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford. His academic career was distinguished; he took a First in Classical Moderations in 1895 and a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1897. In 1898 he was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, a position he held for the rest of his life. He chose a career in civil service, entering in 1898 by open examination. After a year at the Post Office, he was transferred to the Colonial Office and in 1901 he was selected as assistant private secretary to Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. Later the same year Dawson obtained a similar position with Lord Milner, high commissioner in South Africa. 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", a circle of young administrators and civil servants whose membership included Leo Amery, Bob Brand, Philip Kerr, Richard Feetham, John Buchan and Lionel Curtis. United by a common aspiration for Imperial Federation, all later became prominent in the "round table of Empire Loyalists". Career in journalism 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 in February 1911; and then attracted the attention of Lord Northcliffe, owner of The Times, who appointed him editor of the paper in July 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 February 1919. Dawson returned to the post in 1923 after Lord Northcliffe's death, when the paper's ownership had passed to John Jacob Astor V. Bob Brand had become the Astors' brother-in-law, and it is