Dawson Williams

Sir Dawson Williams (17 July 1854 – 27 February 1928) was a British physician and the longest serving editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

He gave up his medical practice to edit the BMJ and published influential studies into "mental healing" and bogus medications that exposed numerous preparations as "valueless" and containing only minute quantities of what was claimed. He retired in 1928 after thirty years of editorship.

Early life and education Dawson Williams was born in Ulleskelf, Yorkshire, on 17 July 1854 to the reverend John Mack Williams, previously the rector of Burnby and of Irish and Welsh descent, and his wife Ellen Monsarrat, of Spanish and Huguenot descent. He was the eldest son of seven children, and educated at Pocklington Grammar School, subsequently going on to University College London (UCL) to study arts.

He stayed on at UCL to study medicine, graduating in 1878, and then taking up junior posts at UCL, the Victoria Hospital for Children and the Brompton Hospital.

He wrote several articles including contributions to Clifford Allbutt’s System of Medicine, and in 1898, he published Medical Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. He was closely connected with the British Medical Journal throughout his career, being first a reporter, then principal sub-editor, and then assistant editor in 1895. He succeeded the editor, Ernest Hart, in 1898, following which he gave up much of his clinical practice, ultimately leaving it completely from 1902 to dedicate his whole time to the journal's editorship which he held for thirty years.

Some of his other BMJ editorial activities included publishing a series of specially commissioned articles on "mental healing", where significant contributions came from eminent medical professionals including Clifford Allbutt, Henry Morris, H. T. Butlin, and William Osler.

In 1917, he was succeeded as editor of the BMJ by Norman Gerald Horner, who had been his assistant.

Later life In 1919, he received the CBE. In 1921 he was knighted and also awarded the gold medal of merit of the British Medical Association. at his home near Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.

Selected publications Medical Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. Cassell, London, 1898. (Second edition 1900 by Frank Spooner Churchill)