Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn
Encyclopedia
Bertrand Edward Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of Penn, GCVO
, KCB
, KCMG
, PC
, FRCP
(9 March 1864 – 7 March 1945) was a physician
to the British Royal Family
and President of the Royal College of Physicians.
, the son of Henry Dawson, of Purley
, an architect.
He entered St Paul's School in London
in 1877 and University College London
in 1879, graduating in 1888 with a Bachelor of Science
(BSc) degree. He graduated from the Royal London Hospital
in 1893 with a Doctor of Medicine
(MD) degree.
(FRCP) in 1903, and worked as a physician for several years. In 1907, Dawson joined the Royal Household
as a physician-extraordinary to King Edward VII
, an office he held until 1910, when he was promoted to a physician-in-ordinary under King George V
until 1914. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1911. Following the outbreak of World War I
, he was given the rank of Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps
in November 1914. He served on the Western Front
in France
from 1915 to 1919, rising to the rank of Major-General (he had served as a Royal Army Medical Corps officer in the Territorial Force
for many years), noticing the poor physical fitness of British troops
and conducting research into trench fever
. He was mentioned in despatches.
He held the office of Physician-in-Ordinary to King George V until 1936 and was appointed Knight of Grace in the Venerable Order of Saint John
and Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1916, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 1918 New Year Honours
, and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1919. Dawson later published a report in 1920 whilst he was Chairman of the Consultive Council on Medical and Allied Services on the Future Provision of Medical and Allied Services. The report was very influential in debates about the National Health Service
when it was set up in 1948. In the New Year Honours of 1920, on 9 February, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Dawson of Penn, of Penn
, in the County of Buckingham
and became an active member of the House of Lords
. In April 1926 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), and he was appointed to the Privy Council
in the 1929 Birthday Honours.
He held the office of President of the Royal College of Physicians
from 1931 to 1937.
and his end was hastened by Lord Dawson, who gave him a lethal injection of cocaine
and morphine
.
Dawson's public stance on euthanasia was expressed later that year when he opposed a move in the Lords to legalise it because it "belongs to the wisdom and conscience of the medical profession and not to the realm of law". In 1986, The contents of Dawson's diary were made public for the first time, in which he clearly acknowledged what he had done—which was described by a medical reviewer in 1994 as an arrogant "convenience killing".
s of King Edward VIII
and King George VI
, and treated numerous members of the Royal Family and foreign monarchs including Queen Maud of Norway
and King Leopold III of Belgium
. During the abdication crisis
of 1936 Dawson was believed to have attempted to influence the retirement of prime minister Stanley Baldwin
on health grounds, thereby to reduce pressure on the king to abdicate. Dawson was undoubtedly indebted to and supportive of Edward but the account of his close colleague William Evans
appears to clear him of any unethical manipulation in the matter.
, on 18 December 1900. They had three children:
Dawson died in March 1945, aged 80. As he had no male heirs, on his death his titles became extinct.
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
, KCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, KCMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
, FRCP
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
(9 March 1864 – 7 March 1945) was a physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
to the British Royal Family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
and President of the Royal College of Physicians.
Early life and education
Dawson was born in CroydonCroydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, the son of Henry Dawson, of Purley
Purley, London
Purley is a place in the London Borough of Croydon, England. It is a suburban development situated 11.7 miles south of Charing Cross.The name derives from "pirlea", which means 'Peartree lea'. Purley has a population of about 72,000....
, an architect.
He entered St Paul's School in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in 1877 and University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
in 1879, graduating in 1888 with a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
(BSc) degree. He graduated from the Royal London Hospital
Royal London Hospital
The Royal London Hospital was founded in September 1740 and was originally named The London Infirmary. The name changed to The London Hospital in 1748 and then to The Royal London Hospital on its 250th anniversary in 1990. The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street,...
in 1893 with a Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
(MD) degree.
Career
After graduation he was registered as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) in 1890 and invested as a Fellow of the Royal College of PhysiciansRoyal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
(FRCP) in 1903, and worked as a physician for several years. In 1907, Dawson joined the Royal Household
Royal Household
A Royal Household in ancient and medieval monarchies formed the basis for the general government of the country as well as providing for the needs of the sovereign and his relations....
as a physician-extraordinary to King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
, an office he held until 1910, when he was promoted to a physician-in-ordinary under King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
until 1914. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1911. Following the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he was given the rank of Colonel in the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
in November 1914. He served on the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
from 1915 to 1919, rising to the rank of Major-General (he had served as a Royal Army Medical Corps officer in the Territorial Force
Territorial Force
The Territorial Force was the volunteer reserve component of the British Army from 1908 to 1920, when it became the Territorial Army.-Origins:...
for many years), noticing the poor physical fitness of British troops
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and conducting research into trench fever
Trench fever
Trench fever is a moderately serious disease transmitted by body lice. It infected armies in Flanders, France, Poland, Galicia, Italy, Salonika, Macedonia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt in World War I Trench fever (also known as "Five day fever", "Quintan fever" (febris Quintana in Latin), "Urban trench...
. He was mentioned in despatches.
He held the office of Physician-in-Ordinary to King George V until 1936 and was appointed Knight of Grace in the Venerable Order of Saint John
Venerable Order of Saint John
The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem , is a royal order of chivalry established in 1831 and found today throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Hong Kong, Ireland and the United States of America, with the world-wide mission "to prevent and relieve sickness and...
and Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1916, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 1918 New Year Honours
New Year Honours
The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, being a civic occasion on the New Year annually in which new members of most Commonwealth Realms honours are named. The awards are presented by the reigning monarch or head of state, currently Queen Elizabeth II...
, and Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1919. Dawson later published a report in 1920 whilst he was Chairman of the Consultive Council on Medical and Allied Services on the Future Provision of Medical and Allied Services. The report was very influential in debates about the National Health Service
National Health Service
The National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
when it was set up in 1948. In the New Year Honours of 1920, on 9 February, he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Dawson of Penn, of Penn
Penn
-Places:England*Penn, Buckinghamshire*Penn, West MidlandsUnited States*Penn, North Dakota*Pennsylvania**Penn, Pennsylvania*Penn Lake Park, Pennsylvania*Penn Township , several municipalities-Education:...
, in the County of Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
and became an active member of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. In April 1926 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB), and he was appointed to the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in the 1929 Birthday Honours.
He held the office of President of the Royal College of Physicians
Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...
from 1931 to 1937.
Euthanasia
On the night of 20 January 1936, King George was dying from bronchitisBronchitis
Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks. Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways...
and his end was hastened by Lord Dawson, who gave him a lethal injection of cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
and morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
.
"At about 11 o'clock it was evident that the last stage might endure for many hours, unknown to the patient but little comporting with the dignity and serenity which he so richly merited and which demanded a brief final scene. Hours of waiting just for the mechanical end when all that is really life has departed only exhausts the onlookers and keeps them so strained that they cannot avail themselves of the solace of thought, communion or prayer. I therefore decided to determine the end and injected (myself) morphia gr. 3/4 and shortly afterwards cocaine gr. 1 into the distended jugular vein."...
The reason for his action, which Dawson frankly admits in his diary, was to ensure that the announcement of the king's death should appear first in the morning edition of The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
and not in some lesser publication later in the day. To make doubly sure that this would happen Dawson telephoned his wife in London asking her to let The Times know when the announcement was imminent.
Dawson's public stance on euthanasia was expressed later that year when he opposed a move in the Lords to legalise it because it "belongs to the wisdom and conscience of the medical profession and not to the realm of law". In 1986, The contents of Dawson's diary were made public for the first time, in which he clearly acknowledged what he had done—which was described by a medical reviewer in 1994 as an arrogant "convenience killing".
Further career
In the 1936 Birthday Honours, on 30 October, he was promoted to Viscount Dawson of Penn, of Penn in the County of Buckingham and remained in the Medical HouseholdMedical Household
The Medical Household is the medical part of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.It mainly comprises a range of Physicians and Surgeons to the Sovereign and to the Royal Household...
s of King Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
and King George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
, and treated numerous members of the Royal Family and foreign monarchs including Queen Maud of Norway
Maud of Wales
Princess Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway as spouse of King Haakon VII. She was a member of the British Royal Family as the youngest daughter of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark and granddaughter of Queen Victoria and also of Christian IX of Denmark. She was the younger sister of George V...
and King Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the Heir Apparent,...
. During the abdication crisis
Edward VIII abdication crisis
In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire was caused by King-Emperor Edward VIII's proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite....
of 1936 Dawson was believed to have attempted to influence the retirement of prime minister Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
on health grounds, thereby to reduce pressure on the king to abdicate. Dawson was undoubtedly indebted to and supportive of Edward but the account of his close colleague William Evans
William Evans (cardiologist)
Dr William Evans M.D., D.Sc., F.R.C.P., Hon.D.Sc. was a distinguished Harley Street cardiologist...
appears to clear him of any unethical manipulation in the matter.
Dawson was physician and friend to both parties in the feud that was then taking place between the King and the Prime Minister. That Dawson, although initially inclined to the view that Baldwin should retire, eventually pronounced on the Prime Minister's health from medical grounds exclusively, and uninfluenced by either political or moral considerations, was confirmed through his immediate acceptance of a young medical colleague's opinion that the Prime Minister's heart was healthy, which made Baldwin's retirement on the grounds of his unfitness from heart trouble no longer tenable, so that any attempt to dethrone the Prime Minister on that assumption must fail.
Family
Lord Dawson of Penn married Minnie Ethel Yarrow, daughter of Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, 1st Baronet, of HomesteadAlfred Yarrow
Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, 1st Baronet, of Homestead was a British shipbuilder who started a shipbuilding dynasty, Yarrow Shipbuilders.-Life and career:...
, on 18 December 1900. They had three children:
- The Honourable Sybil Frances Dawson (1904 – 2 June 1977), married on 1 October 1929 David Eccles, 1st Viscount EcclesDavid Eccles, 1st Viscount EcclesDavid McAdam Eccles, 1st Baron Eccles and 1st Viscount Eccles, CH, KCVO, MP, PC was an English Conservative politician....
, and had issue - The Honourable Ursula Margaret Dawson (1907 – 16 November 1999), married on 10 December 1927 Sir Frank Bowater, 1st Baronet, Lord Mayor of LondonLord Mayor of LondonThe Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
, and had issue, including Charlotte Mary Bowater, mother of the actor Damian LewisDamian LewisLewis was born in St John's Wood, London, the son of Charlotte Mary and J. Watcyn Lewis, a City broker. His paternal grandparents were Welsh. His maternal grandfather was Lord Mayor of London Ian Frank Bowater and his maternal grandmother's ancestors include Bertrand Dawson, 1st Viscount Dawson of... - The Honourable Rosemary Monica Dawson (born 1913), married on 30 November 1939 Sir John Wrightson, 3rd Baronet
Dawson died in March 1945, aged 80. As he had no male heirs, on his death his titles became extinct.