Alleged Discoveries
In 1889 Dawson was a co-founder of the Hastings and St Leonards Museum Association, one of the first voluntary museum friends groups established in Britain. Dawson worked on a voluntary basis as a member of the Museum Committee, in charge of the acquisition of artefacts and documents. His interest in archaeology developed and he had an uncanny knack of making spectacular discoveries, The Sussex Daily News named him the "Wizard of Sussex" for his success.
In 1893 Dawson investigated a curious flint mine full of prehistoric, Roman and mediaeval artefacts at Lavant, near Chichester and probed in inner depths of two tunnels beneath Hastings Castle. In the same year he presented the British Museum with a Roman statuette from Beauport Park which was made, uniquely for the period, of cast iron. Other discoveries followed, including a strange form of hafted Neolithic stone axe and a well-preserved ancient timber boat.
He studied ancient quarries, reanalysed the Bayeux Tapestry and in 1909 produced what was then the definitive study of Hastings Castle. He later found evidence for the final phases of Roman occupation in Britain at Pevensey Castle in Sussex. Investigating unusual elements of the natural world, Dawson found a toad petrified inside a flint nodule, discovered a large supply of natural gas at Heathfield in East Sussex, reported on a sea-serpent in the English Channel, observed a new species of human and found a strange goldfish/carp hybrid. It was even reported that he was experimenting with phosphorescent bullets as a deterrent to Zeppelin attacks on London.
In recognition of his many discoveries, Dawson was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries London in 1895. At the age of 31, and without a university degree to his name, he was now Charles Dawson F.G.S., F.S.A. His most famous discovery was in 1912 with the discovery of the Piltdown Man which was billed as the "missing link" between humans and other great apes.
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