Rawson W. Rawson

Sir Rawson William Rawson KCMG CB (8 September 1812 – 20 November 1899) was a British government official and statistician. During his tenure as a public servant in Canada he contributed to the Report on the affairs of the Indians in Canada, a foundational document in the establishment of the Canadian Indian residential school system.

Rawson Rawson was born in 1812, the son of Sir William and Jane Rawson. His father had originally had the surname Adams, but had changed his name to Rawson, and also given it as a first name to his son. Rawson was educated at Eton and entered the Board of Trade at the age of seventeen. He served as private secretary to three successive Vice-Presidents of the Board, Charles Poulett Thompson, Alexander Baring and William Ewart Gladstone.

In 1842, having served Gladstone for one year he was appointed Civil Secretary to the then Governor-General of Canada Charles Bagot. The same year he was appointed by Bagot, along with John Davidson and William Hepburn as commissioners for a report regarding government policies and expenditures related to Indigenous peoples in Canada East and Canada West. Completed in 1844, the final report, titled the Report on the affairs of the Indians in Canada, included a call for the introduction of industrial schools to address the noted failure of day schools to effectively keep Indigenous children from the influence of their parents. The report is regarded as a foundational document in the rationale for establishing the Canadian Indian residential school system. In 1846, following his work on the report, Rawson was appointed Treasurer and paymaster-general to Mauritius.

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