Brigadier-General Sir Douglas Frederick Rawdon Dawson, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., C.B., C.M.G., was educated at Eton and joined the Coldstream Guards in 1874. Passed for the Staff College in 1881, he went to Egypt in 1882 on 'special service' with the Mounted Infantry where he was present at the battles of Mahuta, Kassassin (where his horse was shot from under him) and Tel-El-Kebir, and also at the capture of Cairo. Accompanied the Guards' Camel Corps on the expedition up the Nile in 1884-5, serving as Staff Officer to Colonel Boscawen, where he was present at the battles of Abu Klea and Gubat as well as the actions at Metammeh and Shebacat (M.I.D.). Military Attache at Vienna, Bucharest and Belgrade, 1890-95, and then at Paris, Brussels and Berne, 1895-1901, he was afterwards appointed Master of Ceremonies to the King in 1903, a post he held until 1907 when he joined the Royal Household. Initially employed as Comptroller in the Lord Chamberlain's Department in 1907 (until 1920), he was also Registrar & Secretary to the Order of the Bath during which tenure he was responsible for the revival of the ancient installation ceremonies. From 1904 onwards, he was also Secretary to the Order of the Garter and, after a brief spell as an Extra Equerry to the King in 1919, he was made State Chamberlain in 1920, occupying this unique position until 1924 as the first and only individual to do so. Upon his retirement in 1924, he was appointed K.C.B. (Civil) and published his memoirs entitled 'A Soldier Diplomat' in 1927 which recounted his fascinating life and career in the highest echelons of British society