Geoffrey Rawson in his early maritime career was three years in sail, and twice sailed round the world in the Aberdeen steel barque, 'Inversnaid'. He then joined the Royal Indian Marine and later retired as a Lieutenant-Commander of the Royal Navy. His father, Charles Rawson, was a tea planter. Rawson married Helen Mary Anderson around 1917, in the Garrison Chapel, Colombo. They lived in Melbourne, Australia in the 1930s (1938-1939 evidenced from articles in the New York Times) where Rawson engaged in journalism. He wrote a number of historical works on Australia and the Pacific including Bligh of the 'Bounty (1930), My Flying Life : an authentic biography ---of the late Sir Charles Kingsford Smith (1937), The Strange Case of Mary Bryant (1938), Matthew Flinders' Narrative of his Voyage in the Schooner Francis, 1798 (1946), Desert Journeys (1948) and Pandora's Last Voyage (1963). He also wrote Australia (1948), a descriptive travel book.
