Anthony
Dawson was born on 8th August 1896 at Lightcliffe, one of only two
children, and the only son, born to Charles Mosley Dawson and Madeline
Florence Dawson. He was educated at Horris Hill School near Newbury,
and at Winchester College where he played for the OTH (Old Tutor's
Houses) XV in 1914. The family home at the time of the First World War
was Wood Hall near Wetherby.
Anthony left the Officers' Training Corps at Winchester on being granted a commission as second lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade on 6th January 1915. Posted initially to the regiment's 5th battalion, he was sent to France on 3rd October 1915 where he joined the 2nd battalion three days later in the trenches at Bois Grenier.
On 7th July 1916, 2nd Rifle Brigade moved into billets in the village of Allouagne. Five days later, the battalion's A and B companies - with Anthony Dawson as one of their officers - were sent east of Béthune to Sailly-Labourse as a working party under 15th Division. The following day the companies were near Vermelles Church when they were caught in the explosion of a shell: Anthony was among five men killed; twenty-six others were wounded, at least three of them fatally.
Anthony Dawson was buried in Vermelles British Cemetery. Lying alongside him are a sergeant, 34-year-old William Studholme, a corporal, 32-year-old Albert Moores, and three riflemen, 20-year-old Herbert Glenn, 21-year-old Arthur Hodnett and 22-year-old George Loughland.