Born in Hamilton, the son of architectural carver Mathew Dawson,
he trained with his father before studying at GSA
, winning Haldane
Trust awards between 1911-13.
After serving in the Highland Light Infantry during World War I,
he returned to GSA
to succeed
William Vickers
as teacher of
stone carving, 1920-38, becoming Head of Modelling and Sculpture, 1929,
after a brief spell as a teacher of bronze casting at the Santa Barbara
Scool of the Arts in San Diego, c. 1926.
Amongst his pupils there were the sculptors Donald Ord (1902-66) and Mabel Karl
(1901-90), to whom he taught the cire-perdu (lost wax) process.
In Glasgow, he worked for the architectural carvers
James Young & Son
,
eventually becoming a partner, as
Dawson & Young
.
Specialising in ecclesiastical sculpture, he worked on several
early churches by Jack Coia, and executed the stone and wood carvings
at
J J Burnet
's War Memorial Chapel, Glasgow University (1923-7), and
at the Ross Memorial Church, West Regent Street (1927).
He also produced sculpture for several commercial buildings in the city.
These include the statue of St. Andrew on the North British &
Mercantile Building (now Sun Alliance), 200 St. Vincent Street (1927), where
he worked with
Andrew Willison
, his carver, and
Jack Mortimer
(Mortimer later completed the sculpture scheme with portraits of Dawson and his
wife as allegorical figures representing a Seafarer and the Seafarers Wife,
c. 1952).
Dawson also produced the Industry and Shipbuilding figures
on the Mercat Building, Glasgow Cross (1928-9); the reliefs and heraldry on the
Scottish Legal Life Building, 81-107 Bothwell Street (1927-31); and the
sculpture on
J J Burnet
's Tennent Memorial Building, 38 Church Street (1933-5).
His public work is represented by the heraldic Unicorn which surmounts
the Mercat Cross at Glasgow Cross, which he carved from a model by Margaret Findlay (1930).
He often used his family as models for his architectural work. His wife,
Isa, and sons Alistair and (baby) Hamish, together with a young female relative,
became the Young Motherhood group over the entrance to the Russell
Institute, Paisley (1927-9).
He exhibited at RGIFA
, 1914-38, showing genre pieces and portrait busts,
including Jack Coia (1933) and J.M. Groundwater (1931), and
was a member of the Glasgow Art Club, executing their War Memorial in 1922.
His final work, a colossal plaster statue of St. Andrew as a Young Man,
was commissioned for the Scottish Pavilion at the Empire Exhibition,
Bellahouston (1938), and became his memorial for the duration of the
exhibition after his sudden death. He died at a friend's house at 81
Nithsdale Drive, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Necropolis.
Elected ARSA
, 1936, his work is represented in private and public
collections, including GMAG
.
Sources:
- GH
[Obit], 18 April, 1938;
- Dawson, H. in Avenue no. 19
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