Early Life
Dawson was born George Geoffrey Robinson, the eldest child of George Robinson, a banker, and his wife Mary. He attended Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He chose a career in civil service, entering in 1898 by open examination. After a year at the Post Office, he was transferred to the Colonial Office and in 1901 he was selected as assistant private secretary to Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain. Later the same year Dawson obtained a similar position with Lord Milner, high commissioner in South Africa.
As Milner's assistant, Dawson participated in the establishment of British administration in South Africa in the aftermath of the Boer War. While there, he became a member of "Milner's kindergarten", a circle of young administrators and civil servants whose membership included Leo Amery, Bob Brand, Philip Kerr, Richard Feetham and Lionel Curtis. United by a common aspiration for Imperial Federation, all later became prominent in the "round table" of Empire Loyalists.
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