Robert Joseph Dawson, in religion Fr Aelred, was born at Lytham, Lancashire, on February 21st, 1881. He came to Ampleforth in 1892, and was in the school, with a break of one year, until he went to Belmont in 1900. He was professed in 1901, and continued at Belmont two years more occupied in his ecclesiastical studies. Returning to Ampleforth in August, 1903, he continued those studies for a year, joining with them some work in the school. In 1904 he went to the Oxford House, and after three years' study took his degree in the School of Theology, obtaining a 'second' in the Class lists. He then spent a short time further in post-graduate study, and returned to Ampleforth to take up work in the school. He was ordained priest on March 25th, 1908. In the work of teaching he continued until, in September of 1909, he was appointed assistant priest at St Anne's, Edgehill, Liverpool. From there he was moved to the Mission of St Benedict's, Warrington, and then back to Liverpool, to St Peter's, Seel Street. While working on the Mission he impaired his health, which was never very good, and pursuing his labours unremittingly contracted the disease - consumption - of which he died, after nearly a year's sickness, on November 14th last, the commemoration of All Souls of the Order of St Benedict.
Robert Dawson, or, as he was known to his schoolmates, 'Bobby' Dawson, was even as a boy something of an idealist. The fact was not so noticeable in those days, for apparently he then found little difficulty in that correspondence with environment which we are told is of the essence of life. He was indeed no very hard student, and took his school life calmly and almost lazily. But his character betrayed itself in a questioning spirit, in an occasional assertion of principle at which his schoolfellows mocked, and in a decided inclination for the inception and conduct of revolutions. Though never a great reader - he had read, he would tell you, part of a book you mentioned, but had not finished it - he made his own what he did read. He had no taste for fiction, but delighted in humorous books, particularly in humorous poetry, and he could quote largely from Gilbert or Lewis Carroll. In prose he took particular pleasure in a rhetorical and rotund style, and he would roll forth with a joy, not unmixed with fun, some particularly resonant passages of a Greek History that was in use when he was in the school. One might judge his schoolfellows' estimate of his character, an estimate that was proved wide of the mark, from the fact that they received with incredulity the news that he was going to Belmont, and were more than doubtful as to his chance of surviving the novitiate.
At Belmont he did not at first discover to his companions his underlying character. He bade fair to be the life and soul of his set, and these can well remember the almost riotous good spirits with which he began the novitiate. But the change was not long in coming. About half way through the year his health broke down, and he had to go away for a time to have his eyes, which always gave him trouble, attended to. In consequence of this he was professed some three months later than his companions, and it was in this extra period of probation that he seemed to take the decided turn towards the life of unsparing self-devotion that he afterwards led. His companions at that time will remember the energy and enthusiasm with which he threw himself into his life, not only into its spiritual duties, but into every detail of daily routine. The Belmont lawns were seldom so industriously mown, or the autumn leaves so unsparingly collected.
As a junior his life was marked by the same energy. He was keenly interested in the philosophy, and his mind displayed the restlessness and originality that were always his. He was interested, too, for a time in the twin prophets, Ruskin and Carlyle, and in their writings found much congenial denunciation of sham and unreality, but above all of social injustice. He never became a theorist in the matter, he had a real and unfeigned dislike of the 'dismal science'; but he preserved and fostered a passion for social work that longed for practical expression, and expressed itself later in his devoted labours on the Mission.
He was even then in some respects a figure set apart among his brethren. To some he seemed merely eccentric and quixotic. Nor did he, perhaps, in the ordinary sense make any close friends. His way was rather to make disciples. At Belmont he might frequently have been found organizing reading parties, to revise some part of the regular work, or to embark upon some special study or line of reading. He commanded the respect, if he did not always engage the sympathy of his companions. His life was patently unselfish and devoted. One could not be with him in choir without being aware of the energy and fervour with which he recited the Divine Office. And it was the same with his other spiritual duties. Nothing came before these, and as the years advanced his life seemed to take a greater and greater simplicity of aim. The spirit of compromise was never congenial to his nature. As a boy and in the first months of his religious life he took the world easily to all appearance, and it seemed that he would achieve some accommodation of his spiritual aspirations to the life around him that would lie along normal lines. One reads of souls that have heard more and more insistently the Divine call to leave all things, who have for a time tried to escape the imperious beckoning of Divine Love. The Saints have always solved the conflict between the absoluteness of this call and the shrinking of human weakness in one way, and that was the way in which Father Aelred solved it. He gave himself up quite unreservedly to his religious life. He did not spare himself, he disliked to ask for the least relaxation of rule, though his body was not strong and he suffered much from minor ailments. (It was characteristic of him to doctor himself with a rigid dietary and drastic medicines, until his body became thin and weak, a feeble instrument doing tremendous work because of the energy of the spirit within.) He fought his way on in the face of difficulties that would have daunted a weaker soul.
But neither asceticism nor sickness made him morose. He ever preserved a cheerful and even gay disposition, and, though sometimes his gaiety was evidently an effort of will, he seldom let any personal unhappiness affect his relations with others. He had a keen sense of humour, and was at his best in developing for the pleasure of others the humour of a situation or a story. He was quick and lively in conversation, very keen and even vehement in discussion, when the matter interested him. But he would take no part in conversation that tended to criticize personal failings or defects, and it was sometimes interesting, and edifying as well, to notice the gentle manner in which he discouraged such conversation or strove by kindly generalities to destroy its sting.
As a master he was patient and careful, and one has heard high testimony to the value of his work among the younger boys, of whom for a time he had special charge. But his heart was never entirely in the work of teaching. He wanted to be doing work which was more directly and plainly spiritual and apostolic. And so he obeyed the call to the Mission with some gladness. Of his work there we can say but little. It was marked by the same zeal, the same devotion, the same disregard of self. He was full of projects for extending his sphere of usefulness. Not content to keep within the old-established limits, he desired, for instance, to spread his influence among young men and boys by starting social clubs. This same spirit he had shown when, as a junior, he gave up his holiday in order to assist Mr Norman Potter. And there is no doubt that he did exercise a great influence in this way, and do much to extend a very useful work. Of his mission labours in general, of his love for the poor, among whom so much of his work lay, that love which is the brightest jewel in any priest's crown, it is sufficient to quote words that one heard at his funeral. 'There's a great love for the poor gone into the ground with that young man. Poor boy, he loved them well.' Yes, he loved them to his own death. In the midst of his labours he took a chill. His body was thin and worn. He had a constant 'temperature.' Yet he said nothing of it, but went about his work as unsparingly, as vigorously as ever, until consumption came, and he was forced to yield. Then for many months he was a patient sufferer. He did not want to die. It was late before he gave up hope of life. He wished to live to continue his work. He was to the last keenly interested in all that was happening in the world. But after months of uncertainty the disease took a definite turn for the worse. He suffered a good deal of pain, but bore all without complaint. His piety and devotion were deep and intense to the end.
Well, one might think, so Father Aelred killed himself; or be tempted to ask again, 'Ut quid perditio haec?' But the answer had best be left to Him Who once before answered just such a question.
ROBERT AELRED DAWSON 14 November 1914
1881 21 Feb Born Lytham
Educ Ampleforth
1900 Clothed Belmont
1901 Simple Profession
1904-07 Oxford Obtained 2nd Class honours in Theological School
1905 Solemn Profession
Minor Orders Belmont
Subdeacon Ampleforth
Deacon
1908 25 Mar Priest Ampleforth
Taught at Ampleforth
1909 Sep Mission to St Anne's Liverpool, to St Benedict's
Warrington, to St Peter's Liverpool - while working here
contracted consumption (1913) & lingered for nearly a year
1914 14 Nov Died
19 Nov Buried at Ampleforth