DAWSON, Harold (1873-1945) was born in Hull, England and articled there with T.B. Thompson from 1888 to 1893. He moved to Sheffield and was engaged as junior assistant, then as chief assistant, to Charles Hadfield FRIBA for ten years. He left England in March 1903 and emigrated to Canada where he settled first at Lloydminster, then in Regina where he took a position with the Public Works Dept. of the North West Territories. When Saskatchewan joined Confederation in 1905 Dawson was appointed chief draftsman in the provincial Dept. of Public Works. In March 1910 he was invited by William R. Reilly and F.B. Reilly to join them in a partnership (see list of works under Reilly Dawson & Reilly). They practised for twelve years during which time Dawson also worked as school board architect for the city of Swift Current for three years. In 1922 the partnership was dissolved and Dawson joined C.D. Howe Co. in Port Arthur where he designed grain elevators and dock structures. He worked briefly in Vancouver for an engineering company, then in Calgary for Ernest T. Brown. In 1929 he succeeded Maurice Sharon as Provincial Architect for Saskatchewan but there was little construction activity during the Depression and his term lasted only five years; in 1934 his position was abolished under a provincial reorganization. After 1938 he worked for Dawson & Rosborough, a firm of chartered accountants. Dawson died in Regina on 2 January 1945 (obit. Leader-Post [Regina], 4 Janury 1945, 5; R.I.B.A., Directory of British Architects 1834-1914, 2001, i, 514-15)
SASK. DEPT. OF PUBLIC WORKS
(with Frank P. Martin) SASKATOON, SASK., School for the Deaf, Cumberland Avenue at Temparance Street, 1930 (C.R., xliv, 11 June 1930, 62; Saskatchewan, Sessional Papers, Annual Report of the Sask. Dept. of Public Works, 1930-31, 27-9, illus. & descrip.)
KENOSEE LAKE, SASK., Moose Mountain chalet and summer resort cabins for the Provincial Government, 1931-32 (Saskatchewan, Sessional Papers, Annual Report of the Sask. Dept. of Public Works, 1931-32, 25; M. Hryniuk & F. Korvemaker, Legacy of Stone - Saskatchewan's Stone Buildings, 2008, 218-21, illus. & descrip.)