Rex Malcom Chaplin Dawson was born on 3 June 1924 in
Stoke Golding,
Leicestershire, the second son of James Dawson, newspaperman, and Ethel Mary (née Chaplin), teacher of music, English and art. He gained a scholarship to
University College London (UCL) and was awarded first class honours for his degree in applied and theoretical physics in 1945. He then moved to Cardiff to join
Derek Richter's group at
Whitchurch Hospital. His work there on the metabolism of the brain earned him a PhD in 1949. Dawson stayed on at Cardiff, doing further work on the metabolism of
phospholipids. He then moved in 1952 to the biochemistry department at
Oxford where he continued his investigations, leading to the publication of an important paper. The head of his department,
Sir Rudolph Peters FRS retired in 1954 and went on set up a new department of biochemistry at the Agricultural Research Council Animal Physiology Unit at
Babraham. Peters had noted Dawson's talent, and offered him a position in the new organisation in 1955. Dawson moved to Babraham and remained for thirty years. Dawson was honorary publications secretary for The Biochemical Society from 1973 to 1980. His contributions to the future of the organization were key: "With his fellow officers of the society, Rex played a major role in getting things onto a more secure financial and administrative basis, a legacy that continues to this day in a flourishing society". ==Family==