Christopher Henry Dawson (12 October 1889, Hay Castle – 25 May
1970, Budleigh Salterton) was a British independent scholar, who
wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom.
Christopher H. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-
speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century". The
1988–1989 academic year at the College of Europe was named in
his honour. The only son of Lt-Colonel H.P. Dawson and Mary
Louisa, eldest daughter of Archdeacon Bevan, Hay Castle, Dawson
was brought up at Hartlington Hall, Yorkshire. He was educated
at Winchester College and Trinity College, Oxford. He obtained
2nd class honours in Modern History at Oxford in 1911. After his
degree he studied economics. He also read the work of the German
theologian Ernst Troeltsch. His background was Anglo-Catholic
but he became a Roman Catholic convert in 1914. In 1916, Dawson
married Valery Mills, youngest daughter of Walter Mills. There
were two daughters and one son. He began publishing articles in
The Sociological Review, in