Name

Edward Howard Dawson

Designation
Architect
Born
1864
Place of Birth
Lancaster
Location
Lancaster
Died
1896

  • Birth date            22 May 1864
  • Marriage              28 December 1893 to Renie Phoebe Storey at Christ Church, Lancaster
  • Death date          31 December 1896 at Manchester
  • Interment           Lancaster Cemetery

Edward Howard Dawson was born on 22 May 1864, the eldest son of Edward Bousfield Dawson (1830-1916) and his wife Mary (nee Howard), at Lunecliffe, Aldcliffe. In 1876 E B Dawson inherited the Aldcliffe Estate from his father, making him a substantial landowner, the family then moving into Aldcliffe Hall. He attended his father's old school, Mill Hill Congregational School, before being articled to the architect George Dale Oliver, of Carlisle, between 1882 and 1886. In 1886 Howard became a pupil of Edward John Tarver of London, in order to study for and take the RIBA architectural examination which he passed in 1887. He became an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA) in 1888, when his proposers were E G Paley, T R Smith and E J Tarver. He set up in independent practice as an architect in Lancaster the same year. Howard Dawson also became an Associate of the Sanitary Institute and Fellow of the Surveyors' Institute in 1891, specializing in sanitation and road building.  Like his father, Howard was very active in local life, being a member of the Lancaster Board of Guardians, Secretary of the Philosophical Society, and a Director of the Waggon Works. In Warton he was Chairman of the Parish Council and President of the Warton District Ploughing and Hedging Association. Very interested in agriculture, he was a member of both the Lancaster and Royal Agricultural Societies and a noted breeder of horses. He was at one time a prominent footballer and captain of the Lancaster Rugby team.

In 1893, E Howard Dawson married Renee Phoebe Storey, third daughter of Edward Storey of Crosslands, and thus allied himself with the influential Storey family. The couple went to live at Warton Hall, near Carnforth, where the Dawsons had an estate, and in 1894 their daughter Catherine Mary Howard Dawson was born. (She died 1975)

Edward Howard Dawson died at Manchester on 31 December 1896. However, the circumstances of his death are unclear, The Builder reported “Mr. Dawson had gone to Manchester on business, and was taken ill in the train, whence be was carried to a hotel in Manchester where he died,” while James Price notes  “Unfortunately, as the result of an internal injury sustained while carrying his daughter, he was taken ill in Manchester and after an operation died there on 31 December 1896.”  His funeral, which was attended by the whole of Lancaster Society, including Lord Ashton, HJ  Austin and H A Paley, took place at Aldcliffe and he was interred in Lancaster Cemetery near to the Storey plot.

Address
1882-1886    Carlisle (Hetherington & Oliver office)
1887        London (Edward John Tarver office)
1888-1896    41 Market Street, Lancaster

Residence
1876-1886    Aldcliffe Hall. Lancaster   
1886-1887    London
1888-1893    Aldcliffe Hall. Lancaster   
1894-1897    Warton Hall, near Carnforth

Obituary    Builder 9 January 1897 page 44
Obituary    Building News 8 January 1897 page 59]
Obituary    Manchester Guardian 2 January 1897 page 5
Obituary    Liverpool Mercury 2 January 1897
Obituary    Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Vol 4, 1897, 229
Obituary    Lancaster Guardian, 9 January 1897

Reference    Nigel Lemon: Missionaries to Lancashire and Beyond: the Dawsons of Aldcliffe. Journal of the United Reformed Church History Society Volume 8 No 5 November 2009 page 245-265
Reference    James Price: Edward Howard Dawson ARIBA 1864-1896 Contrebis, Vol. XXXI 2006-2007, (2008), page 58-64.