Dawson, Ron

Ron Dawson was born in Birmingham's Dudley Road Hospital in 1940. At the age of two he was adopted by a canal boatman and his wife. He was brought up on the vast Kingstanding Council estate. He began work as a butcher's boy and for the next nine years had a succession of short-lived jobs, ranging from building site labourer, window cleaner, soft-drinks delivery-man, power-press operator and door-to-door salesman. A serious motorcycle accident led him to train as a teacher of maladjusted children. He went on to gain the degrees of BA., M.Sc., and PhD., mostly by part-time study. He became a Res...