Trevor Dawson

Commander Sir Arthur Trevor Dawson, 1st Baronet (1 May 1866 – 19 May 1931) was an English businessman who served as managing director of the armaments giant Vickers from 1906 to 1931.

Early life and naval career Dawson was born in Dalkeith House, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, the son of landowner and barrister Hugh Dawson and his wife Mary Ann (née Chaffer).

He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1879 and trained at the Royal Academy, Gosport, and in the training ship HMS Britannia in Dartmouth, Devon. In 1881, he was promoted midshipman in the Channel Squadron and served in a cruiser in the Mediterranean Fleet. co-inventing the muzzle booster together with J. Ramsay in 1904. Another invention by Dawson in 1927 concerned a vehicle drive system, and in particular the patent GB265898, which described an invention for a combined wheel-cum-track-drive system.

He retained close connections with the Royal Navy (his commission on the Emergency List was restored in 1902 ) and the British Government and sat on a number of government committees. He also collected intelligence for the Admiralty on his foreign trips, including one occasion when he skated around the ice-bound dockyards of Kiel to see the German naval ships under construction.

During the First World War, his prominence in the armaments industry naturally increased even further. Although he retained the trust of the government, Vickers, along with other armaments firms, was accused of charging too much. in the 1920 New Year Honours. He was also appointed Grand Cross of the Order of Naval Merit by Spain and was a member of the Order of the Rising Sun and the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class, of Japan. He was a member of council of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor. The Canadian Steamship Lines named a 600-foot lake freighter the in October 1916.

After the war, his influence declined. Another scandal broke in 1920, when Vickers was sued by Admiral Sir Percy Scott over royalty payments for a gun sight manufactured by Vickers which Scott had invented and patented. The judge, Lord Coleridge, made it quite clear that he did not believe Dawson's testimony, and found in Scott's favour. Dawson offered to resign from Vickers, but was refused. He was later implicated in shady dealings with the Turkish government over oil in Iraq.

Dawson was a strong proponent of airships, which Vickers had begun building in 1908. He persuaded Vickers to collaborate in the construction of the R100 in the second half of the 1920s. Although the airship was a success, Vickers lost a substantial amount of money (£220,000) over the project.

Interests and family Dawson was a committed imperialist. He was a knight of the Round Table Club, which promoted inter-imperial trade. In 1916, he formed a pressure group called the London Imperialists, which aimed to promote the election of MPs sympathetic to imperial trade in London constituencies. This later expanded into the British Commonwealth Union, and he sat on the executive committee from 1918 to 1925.

Dawson married Louise Grant in 1892. They had two sons and two daughters. He died suddenly of heart failure at his country seat, Edgewarebury House in Elstree, Hertfordshire, and was buried in Elstree churchyard. The baronetcy passed to his son, Sir Hugh Trevor Dawson, who also served as an officer in the Royal Navy.

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