North Down members, particularly the older one, regret the recent death of founder member John Dawson and our sympathy goes out to his family. In the late seventies and eighties North Down became the dominant force in veteran athletics, now masters athletics. John along with Vince Elliott and Ken Hawtin were the older members of a group which included the younger Billy Brannigan, George Graham and Terry Mallon and won all vets team races for well over a decade. John had earlier run for Willowfield and in 1958 he was a member of the Northern Ireland team in the marathon at the Cardiff Commonwealth Games (or Empire Games as it was then). He joined North Down, his local club, at the start. He was a role model and mentor for both experienced and inexperienced marathon runners during the running boom of the eighties.
He was also well known in bowling circles, a sport he concentated on in his later years.
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