Dawson, Donald James
Rank: Flight Lieutenant
Regiment: Medical Branch, Royal Air Force
Biography: Son of James Alexander Dawson, C.S.I., C.I.E., and Elizabeth Dawson, Dunolly, Bieldside ; born Darjeeling, India, October 1911 ; educated at Aberdeen Grammar School and Robert Gordon's College. He graduated B.Sc. in 1934 and M.B., Ch.B. in 1937 and prepared to specialize in surgery. In 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force, and after serving in Sudan and Egypt was transferred to the Far East. On the fall of Singapore he was taken prisoner by the Japanese and sent to a camp in Java where he acted as Medical Officer. He won a name for himself for his persistence in making demands of his captors on behalf of the men under his care. He was later drowned when a transport conveying prisoners from Java to Japan was torpedoed on 20 June 1944.
Date of Death: 20 June 1944
Burial Details: Name recorded on Singapore Memorial, column 431
Publication: Roll of Remembrance. Published 1952.
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