Trevor Dawson

Commander Sir Arthur Trevor Dawson, 1st Baronet (1 May 1866 – 19 May 1931) was an English businessman who served as managing director of the armaments giant Vickers from 1906 to 1931. Early life and naval career Dawson was born in Dalkeith House, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, the son of landowner and barrister Hugh Dawson and his wife Mary Ann (née Chaffer). He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1879 and trained at the Royal Academy, Gosport, and in the training ship HMS Britannia in Dartmouth, Devon. In 1881, he was promoted midshipman in the Channel Squadron and undertook further training at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, the Royal Artillery College at Woolwich, and the torpedo school in HMS Vernon. He was promoted lieutenant on 20 November 1887 and served in a cruiser in the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1892, he became an experimental officer at Woolwich Arsenal. Business career In 1896, he left the Royal Navy to join the armaments firm Vickers as ordnance superintendent, becoming a director in 1898, and managing director in 1906. He remained in this post until his death. He was also chairman of Chilworth Gunpowder from 1900 and was a director of many of Vickers' subsidiaries, including Canadian Vickers, Vickers-Terni in Italy, and the Placencias Arsenal in Spain. Other directorships included Wolseley Motors and William Beardmore & Co. He participated in the development of the Vickers machine gun, co-inventing the muzzle booster together with J. Ramsay in 1904.