According to Dawson's biographer, Peter Neville: "When Milner went back to Britain, he left several of the kindergarten behind in key posts, at a time when South Africa was recovering from years of bitter struggle. In 1905 Robinson left the civil service on being appointed, largely through Milner's influence, editor of the Johannesburg Star, and he held the editorship until 1910, during the period of office of William Waldegrave Palmer, second earl of Selborne, Milner's successor as high commissioner. From 1906 onwards he was also the South Africa correspondent of The Times, which gave him a platform for a journalistic career in London. For the moment, however, Robinson remained in Johannesburg." (3)

In September 1909, Dawson helped Sir Alfred Milner establish the Round Table. According to Alexander May, "The aim of the Round Table was deceptively simple: to ensure the permanence of the British empire by reconstructing it as a federation representative of all its self-governing parts. Curtis depicted this as the logical outcome of the movement towards self-government in the dominions, and the only alternative to disruption and independence." Curtis was appointed General Secretary on a salary of £1,000 a year. Other members included Leo Amery, Robert Cecil, Lionel Curtis, Philip Kerr, Reginald Coupland, Edward Grigg and Alfred Zimmern. (4)

In 1911 Geoffrey Dawson returned to London and became a full-time staff member of The Times under its owner, the press magnate Lord Northcliffe. Dawson joined the Foreign and Imperial Department. He was invited to Northcliffe's Tudor mansion near Guildford. The two men, who were "strong Imperialists" got on very well. Northcliffe told a friend that Dawson would be "a future editor of The Times." (5)

In August 1912, aged only thirty-seven, Dawson was appointed editor on the retirement of George Earle Buckle. Northcliffe told Dawson: "Our task is great and worthy. If we get the barnacle-covered whale off the rocks & safely into deep water while we are comparatively young we may be able to keep it there until we discover others who can carry on the work." (6)

It was suggested that Dawson was too much under the influence of his mentor Sir Alfred Milner. However, Dawson gave the impression that he was totally loyal to Northcliffe, who had grown rich and powerful by humouring the common taste. (7) According to Stephen E. Koss, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain (1984) Dawson seems to have "routinely acquiesced in Northcliffe's views and prejudices". (8)

The layout of the newspaper paper was redesigned and to make it more competitive, "the price was cut by half to one penny a copy". This was very successful and circulation rose dramatically from 47,000 in August 1912, when Dawson became editor, to an average 145,000 by the spring of 1914. (9)

Dawson attended the Versailles Peace Conference. He commented: "All the world is here. It's like a gigantic cinema-show of eminent persons". However, on his return he was involved in a dispute with Northcliffe over The Times coverage of the government of David Lloyd George, which he considered "too sympathetic". Northcliffe also disliked his attitude towards the defeated nations of the First World War. Dawson resigned in February 1919, because he found Northcliffe's "irresponsible Hun-baiting" intolerable. (10)

On 14th June 1919, Geoffrey Dawson married Margaret Cecilia Lawley, the younger daughter of Sir Arthur Lawley, later sixth Baron Wenlock, who had been lieutenant-governor of the Transvaal. They had one son and two daughters. Dawson became estates bursar to All Souls College. He also took up a directorship in the Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa Company and was secretary to the Rhodes Trust from 1921 to 1922. The interest in journalism was maintained by a temporary editorship of The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs. (11)

After the death of Northcliffe in August 1922, the new owners of The Times, invited Dawson to return as editor. Dawson developed a close relationship with the leadership of the Conservative Party. He was also a strong supporter of Ramsay MacDonald when in 1931 he became head of the National Government. According to Richard Crockett, the author Twilight of Truth: Chamberlain, Appeasement and the Manipulation of the Press (1989), in "the 1930s it can be said that Dawson was privy to more Cabinet thinking and secrets than most members of the government, whether the Prime Minister was MacDonald, Baldwin, or Chamberlain". (12)

Geoffrey Dawson was sympathetic to the views of the Nazi Party in Germany and as early as 1931 Frederick Winterbotham, arranged a meeting with Alfred Rosenberg. (13) In a 1935 speech the Prince of Wales had called for a closer understanding of Nazi Germany in order to safeguard peace in Europe. Geoffrey Dawson agreed with this idea and joined Admiral Sir Barry Domvile, Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, Montague Norman, Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket, Sir Thomas Moore, Frank Cyril Tiarks, Ernest Bennett, Duncan Sandys and Norman Hulbert in forming the Anglo-German Fellowship. (14)

The Anglo-German Fellowship was "a cabal of businessmen, society figures, and other persons of rank and wealth who... wished to maintain and improve commercial and social connections between the two countries". It had fifty members of both House of Parliament, three directors of the Bank of England, and a large number of "generals, admirals, bishops and bankers". Two Soviet spies, Guy Burgess and Kim Philby, also joined. However, they did this because they knew MI5 and MI6 were recruiting from this pro-Nazi organization. (15)

In 1936 Dawson urged Stanley Baldwin to accept the proposal by Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Ambassador to Britain, to meet with Adolf Hitler. Baldwin refused but Neville Chamberlain, who replaced him as prime minister on 28th May, 1937, was far more sympathetic towards Dawson's views on appeasement. Chamberlain immediately contacted Nevile Henderson, the British ambassador in Berlin, and "outlined to me his views on general policy towards Germany, and I think I may honestly say that to the last and bitter end I followed the general line which he set me." (16)

On 1st June, 1937, Henderson attended a banquet arranged by the German-English Society of Berlin. A large number of leading Nazis were in attendance when he made a speech where he defended Adolf Hitler and urged the British people to "lay less stress on Nazi dictatorship and much more emphasis on the great social experiment which is being tried out in this country." (17)

This speech provoked an uproar and some left-wing journalists described him as "our Nazi ambassador at Berlin". However, some newspaper editors, including Geoffrey Dawson, supported this approach to Nazi Germany. In the House of Commons the Conservative Party MP, Alfred Knox offered congratulations "to HM Ambassador in Berlin on having made a real contribution to the cause of peace". (18)

Dawson had a reputation for interferring with the content of articles produced by correspondents based in Berlin who disagreed with his views on appeasement. It has been claimed by Stanley Morison, the author of The History of The Times (1952) that Dawson had censored the reports sent by Norman Ebbutt. Another correspondent in the city, William Shirer commented: “The trouble for Ebbutt was that his newspaper, the most esteemed in England, would not publish much of what he reported. The Times in those days was doing its best to appease Hitler and to induce the British government to do likewise. The unpleasant truths that Ebbutt telephones nightly to London from Berlin were often kept out of the great newspaper”. (19)

In a letter Geoffrey Dawson sent to H. G. Daniels of 23rd May 1937 he said that he did his utmost "to keep out of the paper anything that might hurt their (Nazi German) susceptibilities". (20) Even though his articles were censored, Adolf Hitler still objected to them and in August 1937 Joseph Goebbels demanded that Ebbutt should leave the country. On 21st August he left Berlin, "seen off at the station by a large gathering of his colleagues". Ebbutt later complained "that the half-hearted support he got from his London superiors did not facilitate his difficult task in the capital of the Third Reich". (21)

Douglas Reed, also suffered in the same way as Ebbutt, and in 1938 he resigned from the newspaper. Soon afterwards he published Insanity Fair (1938) a book that attacked Dawson's policy of supporting appeasement. The book brought him world fame. He later wrote: "I let off all this pent-up steam and said just what I thought about the coming war and the folks who were letting it happen in a book, Insanity Fair." (22)

Dawson was also a member of the Cliveden Set. Dawson was a regular weekend guest at Cliveden, the home of Lord Waldorf Astor and his wife, Lady Nancy Astor. Other members included Philip Henry Kerr (Lord Lothian), Edward Wood (Lord Halifax), Nevile Henderson, William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester and Robert Brand. Another regular visitor was the Nazi spy, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, who met Dawson as well as Neville Chamberlain. According to newspaper reports she was said to be involved in arranging negotiations with Adolf Hitler. (23)

As Jim Wilson, the author of Nazi Princess: Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie Von Hohenlohe (2011) has pointed out: "The Astors' house parties became notorious for attracting members of aristocratic society supportive of Hitler and his policies, and for enthusiasts of appeasement. Lord Astor owned both The Observer and The Times, Geoffrey Dawson, editor of The Times, was another of Princess Stephanie's acquaintances and also regularly attended at Cliveden.The house parties were therefore fruitful occasions for Stephanie to work her brand of subtle propaganda: persuasive, clever conversation which traded heavily on her personal contacts with Hitler." (24)

Anthony Eden, Chamberlain's foreign secretary, did not agree with the policy of appeasement and resigned in February, 1938. Eden was replaced by Lord Halifax who fully supported this policy. Winston Churchill, Chamberlain's leading critic within the Conservative Party, argued in the House of Commons: "The resignation of the late Foreign Secretary may well be a milestone in history. Great quarrels, it has been well said, arise from small occasions but seldom from small causes. The late Foreign Secretary adhered to the old policy which we have all forgotten for so long. The Prime Minister and his colleagues have entered upon another and a new policy. The old policy was an effort to establish the rule of law in Europe, and build up through the League of Nations effective deterrents against the aggressor. Is it the new policy to come to terms with the totalitarian powers in the hope that by great and far-reaching acts of submission, not merely in sentiment and pride, but in material factors, peace may be preserved." (25)

Peter Neville has argued: "Dawson's closest relationship was with Lord Halifax, whose Eton, Oxford, and high Anglican antecedents he shared.... In reality, Dawson knew little about European affairs... A regular visitor to Cliveden, he could be counted upon to share Nancy Astor's pro-appeasement, pro-Chamberlain leanings... Dawson's views on appeasing Germany, although supported by his long-standing deputy Barrington-Ward, caused divisions in the office of The Times." (26)

Robert Boothby described Dawson as "the Secretary General of the Establishment, the fervent advocate of Appeasement". He argued that Dawson, as editor of The Times, put pressure on politicians to support the policy of appeasement and "did everything in its power to help Neville Chamberlain and his wretched Government turn the whole country yellow". (27)

The historian, A. L. Rowse, argued in All Souls and Appeasement (1961) that Dawson's views is best explained by "an ignorance of Europe and of European history; too close a rapport with particular politicians; an empirical outlook lacking in principle". (28) Dawson himself claimed that the main reason why he supported the Munich Agreement was because he feared that war with Nazi Germany over Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1938 "would have been misunderstood and resented from end to end of the Empire". (29)

In 1938 British intelligence was becoming very concerned about the activities of Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, a close associate of Geoffrey Dawson. A report said: "She is frequently summoned by the Führer who appreciates her intelligence and good advice. She is perhaps the only woman who can exercise any influence on him." They also reported that she seemed to be "actively recruiting these British aristocrats in order to promote Nazi sympathies." (PROKV2/1696).

According to MI5 the list of people she had been associating with over the last few years included Dawson, Duke of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, Prince George, Duke of Kent, Ethel Snowden, Philip Henry Kerr (Lord Lothian), Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket, Lady Maud Cunard and Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild. (30)

In August 1938 French intelligence, the Deuxième Bureau, told MI6 that it was almost certain that Princess Stephanie was an important German agent. Recently released MI5 documents show that Stephanie's relationship with Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail, a newspaper that had been very supportive of Adolf Hitler, was "actively recruiting these British aristocrats in order to promote Nazi sympathies". (31)

The outbreak of the Second World War Dawson advocated an energetic war policy and criticized the way Neville Chamberlain was organizing the war effort. The damage had been done, however, and The Times suffered a considerable loss of prestige because of its earlier associations with appeasement. Dawson resigned from his post as editor on 30th September 1941. (32)

Geoffrey Dawson died at his home, 24 Lowndes Street, London, on 7th November 1944.

Adolf Hitler's Early Life (Answer Commentary)

Adolf Hitler and the First World War (Answer Commentary)

Adolf Hitler and the German Workers' Party (Answer Commentary)

Sturmabteilung (SA) (Answer Commentary)

Adolf Hitler and the Beer Hall Putsch (Answer Commentary)

Adolf Hitler the Orator (Answer Commentary)

An Assessment of the Nazi-Soviet Pact (Answer Commentary)

British Newspapers and Adolf Hitler (Answer Commentary)

Lord Rothermere, Daily Mail and Adolf Hitler (Answer Commentary)

Adolf Hitler v John Heartfield (Answer Commentary)

The Hitler Youth (Answer Commentary)

German League of Girls (Answer Commentary)

Night of the Long Knives (Answer Commentary)

The Political Development of Sophie Scholl (Answer Commentary)

The White Rose Anti-Nazi Group (Answer Commentary)

Kristallnacht (Answer Commentary)

Heinrich Himmler and the SS (Answer Commentary)

Trade Unions in Nazi Germany (Answer Commentary)

Hitler's Volkswagen (The People's Car) (Answer Commentary)

Women in Nazi Germany (Answer Commentary)

The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (Answer Commentary)

The Last Days of Adolf Hitler (Answer Commentary)

(1) Norman Rose, The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Exclusive Fraternity (2000) page 68

(2) Colin Newbury, Alfred Milner : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(3) Peter Neville, Geoffrey Dawson : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(4) Alexander May, Milner's Kindergarten (2004-2014)

(5) Norman Rose, The Cliveden Set: Portrait of an Exclusive Fraternity (2000) page 77

(6) The History Of The Times: 1884 - 1912 (1947) page 770

(7) William Maxwell Aitken, Politicians and the War (1968) page 99

(8) Stephen E. Koss, The Rise and Fall of the Political Press in Britain (1984) page 207

(9) The History Of The Times: 1884 - 1912 (1947) page 770

(10) Anthony Lentin, Guilt at Versailles: Lloyd George and the Pre-history of Appeasement (1985) page 152

(11) Peter Neville, Geoffrey Dawson : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(12) Richard Crockett, Twilight of Truth: Chamberlain, Appeasement and the Manipulation of the Press (1989) page 12

(13) Frederick Winterbotham, Secret and Personal (1969) page 25

(14) Stephen Dorril, Black Shirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism (2006) page 362

(15) Anthony Cave Brown, Treason of Blood (1995) page 180

(16) Neville Henderson, Failure of a Mission (1940) page 17

(17) Neville Henderson, speech in Berlin (1st June, 1937)

(18) Alfred Knox, speech in House of Commons (9th June 1937)

(19) William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1964) page 355

(20) Geoffrey Dawson letter to H. G. Daniels (23rd May 1937)

(21) Markus Huttner, Norman Ebbutt : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(22) Mark Weber, The Journal of Historical Review (November, 2000)

(23) Martha Schad, Hitler's Spy Princess (2002) page 14

(24) Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess: Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie Von Hohenlohe (2011) page 86

(25) Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons (22nd February, 1938)

(26) Peter Neville, Geoffrey Dawson : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(27) Robert Boothby, Recollections of a Rebel Hardcover (1978) page 182

(28) A. L. Rowse, All Souls and Appeasement (1961) page 115

(29) Geoffrey Dawson, letter to Neville Chamberlain (8th November, 1940)

(30) Martha Schad, Hitler's Spy Princess (2002) page 102

(31) Jim Wilson, Nazi Princess: Hitler, Lord Rothermere and Princess Stephanie Von Hohenlohe (2011) page 87

(32) Peter Neville, Geoffrey Dawson : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)