LDS RCS Eng 1926; LRCP LRCS Edin LRFPS Glas 1929; FRCS Edin 1933; DLO Eng 1937.
Lawson entered the University of Manchester as a dental student, but went on to take a medical qualification. He was house surgeon at MRI and Ancoats Hospital Manchester, already specialising to an extent in ENT cases. Lawson was resident surgical officer at Manchester Ear Hospital, Booth Hall Children's Hospital Manchester and Shrewsbury Royal Infirmary, before being appointed registrar (ear, nose and throat) to the Manchester Babies' Hospital. By 1939 Lawson was honorary assistant laryngologist to the Manchester Throat and Chest Hospital, acting aural surgeon to Manchester Jewish Hospital and assistant surgical officer to MRI. Lawson spent much of the war in Carlisle working for the Ministry of Health. After returning to Manchester, Lawson resigned his post at MRI to gain more experience in the field on laryngeal surgery and endoscopy at Christie Hospital Manchester where he was chief assistant to the ear, nose and throat department, and later consulting laryngologist He held a number of consulting positions in hospitals throughout Manchester and the North West and was honorary lecturer in otolaryngology at the University of Manchester. Lawson was a member of MMS and the Manchester Surgical Society, and a founder member of the Association of Oto-Laryngologists. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. Lawson retired to Cumbria in the 1970s.