Abram Dawson.

[bendle]

UK/Irish worker Abram or Abraham Dawson who was a worker for many years and possibly died in the 1980s? Born in Ireland but preached in the UK? May also have had a brother who was also a worker?

Named to me as a serial abuser of young/very young girls in England. 

If anyone has information in respect to his timeline/locations in the work in the UK then please consider posting here or pm me. Any worker lists with his name on would be most welcome too. 

It goes without saying that there are correct channels to report abuse, even in cases where the alleged perpetrator is deceased. The AFTT folks plus local police services would be places to contact if there is an official complaint that one wishes to report or even if someone just wants to speak privately and confidentially about it. Heck, if you want to tell your story then I'm willing to listen.

I'm not an investigator, I'm simply someone who is horrified by what has happened over the years and at how it has been enabled and also covered up 'for the good of the kingdom'- a morally bankrupt statement if ever there was. 

Our parents were told to trust the workers and they told us to trust the workers. Our grandparents revered the 'strangers' who turned up in their communities, they kept their photos of the workers through whom they professed as treasured possessions- photos were indeed expensive in the 1910s/20s/30s/40s!! Workers themselves have also stood on the platform and preached that 'we' should trust them and not criticise them- I recall a visiting American sister worker at Debenham/Suffolk in the early 90s who was most vehement on this; I can picture her to this day stood preaching us that. Workers were placed on such a high pedestal that to find out that they were/are capable of serious abuse in sexual, physical and psychological ways is extremely upsetting and angering. Often we were kept isolated from the 'sinful world' and its dangers and years later we find that we were more at risk from those who walked among us!!

Now clearly I am not suggesting that every worker is guilty of evil behaviours. But what I want to get through to people is that this is not a new issue whatever anyone may think, and that there are people/friends out there who have carried painful memories and possibly shame for many many years for matters in which they were entirely innocent. How shocking it is to discover that people who spoke to us, who smiled at us, who were highly regarded by our parents, who stayed in our childhood homes (sometimes babysat us), who commanded our respect and attention, were predators of the worst kind!

Talk about this!! Ask your friends and your childhood friends if they were ever abused, and if they answer no, then thank your god or pure blind luck that this is the case. Don't think for one moment that you never crossed paths with a predator or a groomer or a sociopath. 

Surely surely the practice of workers staying in friends houses has to end?? 

[uker260702]

He shows as Abram Dawson on the lists. Not sure if his brother was Sam Dawson (There is S. Dawson on some lists)

I have added tent missions where they are listed. These seem to be shown on the lists that are England only. I have some of these lists but most are the combined England/ Scotland / Ireland lists where tent missions don`t appear to be shown.

First list I have is 1941/42

1941/42 - Lancashire

1942/43 - Lincolnshire

1943/44 - Northants

1944/45 - Lincolnshire

1945/46 - Cornwall

1946/47 - Cornwall

1947/48 - Don`t have this list

1948/49 - Shropshire

1949/50 - Shropshire

1950/51 - Suffolk

1951/52 - Suffolk

1952/53 - Don`t have this list

1953/54 - Don`t have this list

1954/55 - Don`t have this list

1955/56 - Don`t have this list

1956/57 - Don`t have this list

1957/58 - Berkshire & Oxfordshire

1958/59 - Don`t have this list

1959/60 - Norfolk (also Norfolk Tent Mission)

1960/61 - Norfolk

1961/62 - Norfolk (also Suffolk Tent Mission)

1962/63 - Northamptonshire

1963/64 - Northamptonshire

1964/65 - Northamptonshire

1965/66 - Dorset

1966/67 - Wiltshire & Dorset

1967/68 - Dorset

1968/69 - Westmorland

1969/70 - Gloucestershire

1970/71 - Gloucestershire

1971/72 - Gloucestershire & North Somerset

1972/73 - South Lincolnshire

1973/74 - Yorkshire & Durham

1974/75 - North Yorkshire & Durham (Also 1974 Tent Mission - North Yorkshire & Durham

1975/76 - North Yorkshire & Durham (Also Tent Mission North Yorkshire)

1976/77 - North Yorkshire & Durham

1977/78 - North Yorkshire

1978/79 - Somerset & Bristol

1979/80 - Somerset and Bristol

1980/81 - Norfolk

1981/82 - Norfolk

1982/83 - Norfolk

1983/84 - Suffolk & Essex

1984/85 - Staffordshire and Shropshire

Not listed after 1984/85

[toparrow]

Yes his brother was Sam Dawson
Italy

[bendle]

Basically my point is that there are people out there who have living memory of this chap. Yes he might be deceased but he did huge damage to lives while the opportunity was available to him. There are people out there living with those memories of his evil. That horrifies me and it should horrify you too.

[uker260702]

It appears that Abram died sometime in June 1985.

Looking at TTT, he is mentioned in Letter No. 5 of 7 written by Sydney Holt about his 1985 tour of the UK and Ireland.

In speaking of Sam Dawson, in a letter dated 27th June 1985, Sydney says “His brother Abram who has been in the work in England passed away the last day of this convention [ Monaghan - Ireland ] in England and Sam left”

www.tellingthetruth.info/workers_later/holtsyd.php

[otto2]

I was in my mid teens when Abram Dawson was in our area. I left the meetings aged 16 without making any profession of faith.
I remember Abram with affection. He was well respected by the friends and I believed him to be a good man.
He could preach a bit too, and I still remember some of the things he said.
If there is any firm evidence against Abram, then it should be presented to an appropriate authority.
If the posts are only speculation, hearsay and rumour, then people should be quiet, and posts should be removed.

[bendle]

It isn't speculation, isn't rumour, and it isn't going away. He's named by several people from different areas of the UK. I've put it on here as validation for a woman who has suffered her entire life due to what was done to her in her childhood home.
He is dead, so reporting to the UK police will do precisely zero. Like other abusers he clearly had a public face which decieved many people.
More stuff to come as and when I can.
Hope that helps.

[BobWilliston]

Feb 9, 2024 15:50:25 GMT -5 bendle said:

It isn't speculation, isn't rumour, and it isn't going away. He's named by several people from different areas of the UK. I've put it on here as validation for a woman who has suffered her entire life due to what was done to her in her childhood home.
He is dead, so reporting to the UK police will do precisely zero. Like other abusers he clearly had a public face which decieved many people.
More stuff to come as and when I can.
Hope that helps.

It sounds like he had the kind of face that most often lets people trust him too much.

[themaninthemirror]

Jan 31, 2024 19:52:47 GMT -5 bendle said:

UK/Irish worker Abram or Abraham Dawson who was a worker for many years and possibly died in the 1980s? Born in Ireland but preached in the UK? May also have had a brother who was also a worker?

Named to me as a serial abuser of young/very young girls in England. 

If anyone has information in respect to his timeline/locations in the work in the UK then please consider posting here or pm me. Any worker lists with his name on would be most welcome too. 

It goes without saying that there are correct channels to report abuse, even in cases where the alleged perpetrator is deceased. The AFTT folks plus local police services would be places to contact if there is an official complaint that one wishes to report or even if someone just wants to speak privately and confidentially about it. Heck, if you want to tell your story then I'm willing to listen.

I'm not an investigator, I'm simply someone who is horrified by what has happened over the years and at how it has been enabled and also covered up 'for the good of the kingdom'- a morally bankrupt statement if ever there was. 

Our parents were told to trust the workers and they told us to trust the workers. Our grandparents revered the 'strangers' who turned up in their communities, they kept their photos of the workers through whom they professed as treasured possessions- photos were indeed expensive in the 1910s/20s/30s/40s!! Workers themselves have also stood on the platform and preached that 'we' should trust them and not criticise them- I recall a visiting American sister worker at Debenham/Suffolk in the early 90s who was most vehement on this; I can picture her to this day stood preaching us that. Workers were placed on such a high pedestal that to find out that they were/are capable of serious abuse in sexual, physical and psychological ways is extremely upsetting and angering. Often we were kept isolated from the 'sinful world' and its dangers and years later we find that we were more at risk from those who walked among us!!

Now clearly I am not suggesting that every worker is guilty of evil behaviours. But what I want to get through to people is that this is not a new issue whatever anyone may think, and that there are people/friends out there who have carried painful memories and possibly shame for many many years for matters in which they were entirely innocent. How shocking it is to discover that people who spoke to us, who smiled at us, who were highly regarded by our parents, who stayed in our childhood homes (sometimes babysat us), who commanded our respect and attention, were predators of the worst kind!

Talk about this!! Ask your friends and your childhood friends if they were ever abused, and if they answer no, then thank your god or pure blind luck that this is the case. Don't think for one moment that you never crossed paths with a predator or a groomer or a sociopath. 

Surely surely the practice of workers staying in friends houses has to end?? 

Letter No. 5 of 7
4433 N. 62nd Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85033
June 27, 1985

Dear friends far and near,

The first convention for us in Ireland was Monaghan (Dunraymond) which is about 20 miles from the border into southern Ireland. Convention has been held here since 1920, and it is a most interesting place. The big two-story stone house and buildings enclosing a big courtyard was built in the early 1800's as a stagecoach inn for the stopover between Dublin and Londonderry in the north. Here they would have fresh horses, feed and food and lodging for the passengers. Off the courtyard were rooms to park the stagecoaches, stalls and feed for horses, etc. Now 400 sleep in these rooms but they use a tent and some old mission portable halls for the rest of the sleeping quarters, as there are about 600 here. A tent is used for meetings. Sam Dawson (89, went into the work here in 1922, to Italy in 1926) showed me where he slept at convention here before going in the work. His brother Abram who has been in the work in England passed away the last day of this convention in England and Sam left. Robert and Elizabeth Jennings run a dairy farm here and milk 80 cows. His brother John preaches in Chile and Betty in Uruguay.

[ruth]

I was a professing 13 year old innocent girl who was sexually abused by Abram Dawson in 1970 in England. I am now 67 and have never really got over it as, at the time, I was very frightened as we had always been brought up to respect the workers and revere them as God’s true servants. This despicable and disgusting sexual encounter occurred when Abram came to stay with my parents at our home, from a funeral we had attended the previous day. So, this was the next morning, my much older sister said Abram wanted me to come into his bedroom for a little chat before I went to school, as she had just been in to see him before that, and she told me later that the same sexual abuse had taken place with her too. Whilst I was in the room with him, he said that he had done the same to one of the (now deceased) sister workers J.Lovegrove. My sister later told a senior brother worker of the appalling sexual abuse, and although he was horrified that, in particular, this had been done to a minor and obviously a serious matter, nothing was done about it by any of the workers, simply swept under the carpet. This predator was never brought to book and allowed to continue in the work until his dying day. I am no longer in the 2x2’s (my husband and I were in it for almost 50 years and had a meeting in our home, and at one time, all our 3 children professed too), but we lost complete trust in The Truth, partly due to the sexual abuse and cover-ups that affected our family in recent years, this we know not the teachings of Jesus. We still follow Jesus but not according to The Truth’s living witness doctrine as the true full Gospel of Christ is not upheld.

[Annan]

Powerful testimony, Ruth. Saddens my heart for what you went through and the pain you must feel at being betrayed. *hugs*

[snow]

ruth I am so sorry for what you had to go through.

[bendle]

Ruth, I am so sorry for what you've been through. This man was a monster. He abused 4 or 5 relatives of mine as they were young girls in the 50s and 60s.

Do you know which worker the abuse was reported to and are you able to name that worker or pm me their identity?
The trouble is,there is so much stuff to come out that it is entirely possible that it was reported to another abuser.

[ruth]

Mar 4, 2024 18:09:11 GMT -5 bendle said:

Ruth, I am so sorry for what you've been through. This man was a monster. He abused 4 or 5 relatives of mine as they were young girls in the 50s and 60s.

Do you know which worker the abuse was reported to and are you able to name that worker or pm me their identity?
The trouble is,there is so much stuff to come out that it is entirely possible that it was reported to another abuser.

[ruth]

I was with my older sister when she reported Abram’s sexual abuse to the senior brother worker who was actually labouring in the County at the time, and he was Dennis Fenton (now deceased). As i’ve already mentioned, he was horrified that CSA had taken place and also that my 21year old sister (who Abram had already sexually abused before I went into the bedroom), had allowed me, a child, to enter his bedroom after her. It’s unsure whether Dennis reported this disgusting sexual abuse to the UK overseer at the time, Jack Forbes, but whatever, this predator Abram was allowed to carry on in the Work preaching the Gospel, and in the position where he could sexually abuse other young girls/women thereafter. It’s almost unbelievable that anyone could feel comfortable to allow such vile behaviour to continue, when considering the supreme sacrifice Jesus made on the cross to save us from such.

[bendle]

Ruth, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this but Dennis Fenton has also been named just now as a known sexual abuser for many years.
He abused a relative of mine for many years from quite a young age and was known to sexually assault sister workers when he had the power of assigning them their fields and companions for the next year- this I have from a former sister worker who was here in the Uk.

I'm sorry, words are not enough.

Dennis has been named in a Facebook group with the express consent of a victim.
He died in 2010 in Lincolnshire.

[ruth]

Hi Bendle, I personally had my doubts about Dennis Fenton tbh when I reported Abram Dawson’s sexual abuse. Sad to say, one evening when i was in a friends home (early 1970’s), upon opening the sitting room door I saw Dennis with one of the young professing woman who was kneeling on the floor in front of him, with his trousers around his ankles and just his turquoise y-fronts on. Needless to say, I was absolutely shocked and quickly turned round and went out the door. A elder in the church in another county told my husband and I of an incident where Dennis broke the springs of a single bed whilst staying in the home of a professing spinster. This is all so sad, when you consider just what they are supposed to be standing up for and who they are representing, forgetting that God knows and sees everything.

[bendle]

Oh my good grief!!!

And to think that he attempted to split my brother and his girlfriend because she'd not professed at that point!!