Thom's Irish Who's Who/Dawson, William Richard

DAWSON, William Richard, O.B.E. (1919), M.D. (1891), F.R.C.P.I. (1899), Lieut.-Col. late R.A.M.C. Educ.: Royal School, Dungannon; T.C.D.; Specialized in Mental Disease, after a period of study at Berlin and Vienna in 1892, and became Assistant Physician at the Royal Asylum, Edinburgh, and later at Farnham House, Finglas, Co. Dublln, in 1894; Resident Medical Superintendent of the latter, 1899 to 1911; appointed H.M. Inspector of Lunatic Asylums in Ireland, 1911, in which year also elected President of Medico-Psychological Association of Great Britain and Ireland; in 1906 had been appointed Investigator under the Royal Commission on the Feeble Minded for the City of Dublin. In 1915 was given Commission as Major in R.A.M.C, and appointed Specialist in Nerve Disease to the troops in Ireland; mentioned in despatches, 1917; promoted Lieut.-Col., and appointed President of Special Medical Board to deal with nerve cases amongst service men; assisted in organising Home of Recovery at Leopardstown Park, near Dublin: demobilised March, 1920; became Chief Medical Officer Ministry of Home Affairs, Northern Ireland 1922; b. 11th September, 1864; eldest son of Very Rev. Abraham Dawson, M.A., Dean of Dromore, and Rector of Seagoe; m. Florence, dau. of R. W. Shekleton, Q.C., 1898. Pubns.: Elements of Pathological Histology; translated and edited from German of Prof. Weichselbaure, 1895; Role of the Blood supply in Mental Pleasure and Pain, 1900; On Suprarenal Extract in the Treatment of Mental Disease, 1901; The Insanities of Reproduction, Dr. U. Jellett's Manual of Midwifery, 1909; Alcohol and Mental Disease, 1908; Report on Mentally Defective and Epileptic in County Borough of Dublin, 1908; Relation between Geographical Distribution of Insanity and that of certain Social and other Conditions in Ireland, 1911, etc., etc. Recns.: Mountaineering fishing, photography. Res.: 26 Windsor Park, Belfast. Clubs: Ulster, Belfast; University, Dublin; Swiss Alpine, London and Geneva.