Early Life
Lawson was born in 1932 to a wealthy family living at Hampstead. His father, Ralph Lawson (1904–1982), was the owner of a commodity-trading firm in the City of London, while his mother, Joan Elisa Davis, was also from a prosperous family of stockbrokers. His family is Jewish. His paternal-grandfather Gustav Leibson, a merchant from Mitau (now Jelgava in Latvia) changed his name from Leibson to Lawson after becoming a British Citizen in 1911.
Lawson was educated at Westminster School (following in his father's footsteps, also an Old Westminster) and Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained a first class honours degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, He carried out his military service as a Royal Navy officer – during which time he commanded a small torpedo boat. Lawson began his career as a financial journalist and progressed to the positions of City editor of The Sunday Telegraph in 1961 and editor of The Spectator (1966–1970).
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