James Lennox Dawson

He dragged the leaking gas cylinders clear under heavy fire.

James Lennox Dawson was born at Tillicoultry on Christmas Day 1891. He studied science in Glasgow and became a teacher before enlisting in the Cameronians in November 1914. He reached France in March 1915 and was subsequently transferred to the Royal Engineers’ gas organization because of his scientific background.

On 13 October 1915, during the fighting around the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a British gas attack endangered the infantry crowded into the forward trenches. Dawson directed his sappers and helped men leave sections filled with gas. Discovering leaking cylinders, he moved them away from the trench under German fire and shot into them so their contents would disperse clear of the soldiers. His intervention prevented further casualties and earned the Victoria Cross.

George V presented the award at Buckingham Palace that December. Dawson was commissioned in 1916, returned to France and was wounded before the Somme offensive. His subsequent duties included anti-gas instruction and service with the British military mission in the United States.

After the war he resumed his studies and obtained his Glasgow science degree in 1920 under provisions recognizing war service. He married Margaret Maxwell in 1917. Returning to professional soldiering, he served in military education and then transferred to the Indian Army, where he held education and ordnance appointments.

During the Second World War, Dawson worked with the India Supply Commission in North America as a vehicle liaison officer. He remained in India after independence to assist the new army before retiring in 1948 with the honorary rank of colonel.

He settled at Eastbourne and died on 15 February 1967. His career joined teaching, technical military service and overseas administration, while his Victoria Cross commemorated an act that protected his own men from the weapons they were operating.

Official Victoria Cross citation

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on 13th October, 1915, at Hohenzollern Redoubt. During a gas attack, when the trenches were full of men, he walked backwards and forwards along the parados, fully exposed to a very heavy fire, in order to be the better able to give directions to his own sappers, and to clear the infantry out of the sections of the trench that were full of gas. Finding three leaking gas cylinders, he rolled them some 16 yards away from the trench, again under very heavy fire, and then fired rifle bullets into them to let the gas escape. There is no doubt that the cool gallantry of Corporal Dawson on this occasion saved many men from being gassed.

Supplement to The London Gazette of 7 December 1915. 7 December 1915, Numb. 29394, p. 12281