Arthur Lacy Dawson was the son of AF Dawson and Nellie Church. He was educated at Sydney Grammar School and entered Sydney University in 1901. He was full of life and had a courtesy and charm rare in one so young. He answered to `Laddie' but an advertising campaign for Dawson's whisky inevitably changed this to `Whisky'.

He was so gregarious that he found medicine dull, transferred to law which he found worse and, after a spell on the land, returned to medicine and graduated in 1911. After a year at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital he followed John Storey as assistant to MacCormick. In 1914 he sailed for the Middle East and served on Gallipoli. At the field ambulance on Anzac Beach he used to welcome the wounded with `You'll be right son'. `We'll get you away tonight son'. His personal care of and affection for all ranks earned him a high place in the regard of the AIF. As ADMS AIF in Egypt he was a strong disciplinarian, but sympathetic and understanding. His greatest achievement was the control, with Fiaschi, of venereal disease. He was awarded the DSO and was mentioned in dispatches.

His sense of fun is illustrated by an event recounted by Sir Herbert Schlink, a close friend, in his obituary of Dawson. With his fellow student, Henry Laye, he entered the competition for naming the federal capital with `Ughdemac', a name masquerading as an Aboriginal word, but derived from Hugh D Macintosh, a well known entrepreneur of the day. Their entry fortunately did not win, but was the subject of a good deal of mirth.

After the War he remained in the UK for dermatological studies with Sir Norman Walker at Edinburgh and upon his return was appointed to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. As a teacher he was always helpful, precise and courteous to patients and students alike. He worked with the staff of Royal North Shore Hospital and as a consultant to the Royal Hospital for Women and Western Suburbs Hospital. During the Second World War he worked as a consultant dermatologist to 113 AGH at Concord as well as carrying on a very busy private practice. He was a foundation Fellow of the College.

He was married to Eileen Bolger. His only son Ian, followed in his footsteps on the dermatological staff of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.