Ginger Fyre Authors

Ron Dawson was born Ronald Wheeler in Birmingham’s Dudley Road Hospital in 1940. At the age of two, he was adopted by Tommy Dawson, a canal boatman and his wife Henrietta and his surname name was changed to Dawson. The couple raised him and four of their own children on the giant Kingstanding council housing estate.

Tommy, his adopted father had been born on the canal and most of his working life was a carrier on the canals. After the Second World War transport by the inland waters diminished almost to the point of extinction and he finished his working life as a dredger on one of the last horse drawn narrow boats operating on the midland canals. During this work he was based at Padgett’s Canal Dredgers which was situated on the Tame Valley Canal at the point where the canal goes under the College Road within sight of the Boar’s Head public house.

Ron began work as a butcher’s boy and for the next nine years he had a succession of short-lived jobs, ranging from building site labourer, window cleaner, soft-drinks delivery man, and power-press operator to door-to-door salesman.

An interest in History and a serious motorcycle accident led him study for and gain a sufficient number of GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels to gain entry to St. Peter’s College, Saltley, in Birmingham to train as a history teacher. It was during this training that he wrote this history of the building of the first Birmingham Canal as a mark of his gratitude and appreciation to both his father and mother for giving him their love and a home. He went on to gain the degrees of BA., M.Sc., and PhD., mainly by part-time study. He became a Research and Chartered Psychologist, and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He has worked as a LEA and OFSTED Inspector, and was Principal Lecturer for post-graduate awards and Head of Special Needs and Habilitation in what is now the University of Winchester.

He has numerous academic and research based publications, many focused upon behavioural and emotional difficulties.  His first book ‘Special Provision for Disturbed Pupils’ was published as part of the Schools Council Research Studies in 1980 by Macmillan Education. His Teacher Information Pack (Tips), also published by Macmillan Education, embraced the whole range of Special Educational Needs and was described as an ‘Opus Magnum’ in a professional psychological journal review. He also wrote two books to teach children Hand writing as part of the Macmillan Success 'Series. 'His interest in child development led him to create the Baby Progress Guides, a pack of materials designed for parents to assess and promote their babies development up to the age of two years.

He also wrote a regular satirical column, ‘The Dawson File’, for Special Children magazine.

On his retirement Ron began to write fictional books for both children and adults. He has written two novels and six story books for children. He also wrote and composed a song of remembrance which inspired him to create, write and produce ‘the Lest We Forget National Children’s Remembrance Concert’ at the NEC in Birmingham on the third of November, 2018, to commemorate the Centenary of the First Word War Armistice.