Harvey Alexander Dawson was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada on 6 September 1890. In 1914 or 1915 he moved to England and by the early 1920s had settled in London where he was practising as an architect. It is not known where or with whom he trained. In 1922 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (ARIBA). That year he submitted a design for a bungalow in the Daily Mail Architects Competition for Labour-Saving Bungalows.
His address was given as I, Featherstone Buildings, High Holborn, London in 1922; c/o. Bank of Montreal, 9, Waterloo Place, London in 1923 and 1930; and 19 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, London in 1936 and 1939. He died in the 8th Canadian General Hospital, Farnborough, Hampshire on 5 June 1942