Major-General Edward Frederick Lawson, 4th Baron Burnham, CB, DSO, MC, TD (16 June 1890 – 4 July 1963), was a British newspaper executive and Territorial Army officer who served with distinction in both World Wars.
Early life and family
Lawson was born on 16 June 1890, the eldest son of Colonel William Levy-Lawson (1864–1943) and his wife Sibyl Mary Marshall, eldest daughter of Lt-Gen Sir Frederick Marshall. His father was the younger son of Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham, proprietor of The Daily Telegraph and had served in the Scots Guards and then in the part-time Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry (Royal Bucks Hussars), with which he had won a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) during the 2nd Boer War. His first cousin was Mrs Dorothy Coke (née Levy-Lawson, died 1937), wife of Major Sir John Coke (died 1957). His daughter Lucia wrote a book about Hall Barn, her home from age 11 and the seat of the Baron Burnham family.
Edward Lawson was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a third-class degree in modern history in 1913 and played Polo for the university. In 1910 he was commissioned into the Royal Bucks Hussars, of which his father became Honorary Colonel in 1913.
On leaving Oxford, Lawson joined the family newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, as a reporter, first in Paris and then in New York. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he returned to the UK to serve with the Royal Bucks Hussars.
World War I
The Royal Bucks Hussars was embodied on the outbreak of war and went to its war station near Bury St Edmunds, later joining a concentration of mounted troops around Churn on the Berkshire Downs. In November the 2nd Mounted Division, of which the Royal Bucks formed part, was sent to guard the East Coast in Norfolk. In April 1915 the division was shipped to Egypt, where it was reorganised as a small dismounted division and sent to Gallipoli.
2nd Mounted Division landed at Suvla Bay on the night of 17/18 August, with Lawson acting as landing officer. Three days later it was sent into action at the Battle of Scimitar Hill, when it was intended to push through to the second objective after the main Turkish positions had been captured. The Yeomanry moved up at 17.00, marching from their bivouacs across the plain of the Salt Lake, where they 'presented such a target as artillerymen dream of'. On reaching Chocolate Hill they paused to reorganise before moving on towards Scimitar Hill through blinding dust and smoke, with little idea of what they were supposed to do and suffering heavy casualties. Most of the division halted at Green Hill, but Brigadier-General Lord Longford led his 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade (including the Royal Bucks Hussars) in a charge over Green Hill and up to the summit of Scimitar Hill. Longford was killed, and his men were finally driven from the summit.
The casualties at Scimitar Hill had been so severe, and manpower wastage through the summer was so heavy, that the 2nd South Midland Mounted Brigade had to be temporarily reorganised as a single regiment, and was evacuated to Egypt in November for rest and recuperation, where it was reunited with its horses. After service in the Senussi Campaign with the Western Frontier Force, the Royal Bucks Hussars went to Palestine to join the Imperial Mounted Division, with which it served in the First and Second Battles of Gaza. The regiment then transferred to the Yeomanry Mounted Division and fought with it in the Third Battle of Gaza and at the Battle of Mughar Ridge, where it participated in a notable mounted charge. It was involved in Allenby's entry into Jerusalem.
In April 1918 the Royal Bucks Hussars went to France to serve on the Western Front, but Lawson was not with them: he had been appointed at age 26 acting Lieutenant-Colonel to command the 1st County of London (Middlesex) Yeomanry, which continued to serve with the Desert Mounted Corps in Palestine for the rest of the war, including the Battle of Megiddo. During the final pursuit towards Damascus, Lawson's regiment was lent to T. E. Lawrence, under whose orders it charged the enemy rear and drove them into a trap, completing the destruction of the Turkish Fourth Army.
During the war Lawson was awarded a Distinguished Service Order, Military Cross and three mentions in despatches. The citation for his MC, gazetted in July 1918, reads: