Cedric Charles Dickens
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
and steward of his literary legacy.
Biography
Cedric 'Ceddy' Dickens was the son of Philip 'Pip' Charles Dickens (1887 - 1964), a chartered accountantChartered Accountant
Chartered Accountants were the first accountants to form a professional body, initially established in Britain in 1854. The Edinburgh Society of Accountants , the Glasgow Institute of Accountants and Actuaries and the Aberdeen Society of Accountants were each granted a royal charter almost from...
and the first secretary of ICI
Imperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
. He was the grandson of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens
Henry Fielding Dickens
Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC was the eighth of ten children born to British author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years.-Early...
, the sixth of Dicken’s ten children, a Common Serjeant of London
Common Serjeant of London
The Common Serjeant of London is an ancient British legal office, first recorded in 1317, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of London, acting as deputy to that office, and sitting as a judge in the trial of criminal offences.The Common...
, and the nephew of Admiral Sir Gerald Charles Dickens
Gerald Charles Dickens
Admiral Sir Gerald Louis Charles Dickens, KCVO, CB, CMG, RN, was a senior Royal Navy officer and the grandson of Victorian novelist Charles Dickens.-Early career:...
. He attended Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, graduating in Law in 1935. Following three trips to the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
by banana boat
Banana boat (ship)
A banana boat is a ship that carries bananas as a primary cargo, or is otherwise engaged in the banana trade. As the main produce of the West indies was bananas they were also used as a form of cheap transportation and the English cricket team that toured the West Indies in 1959–60 used banana...
, Dickens joined the British Tabulating Machine Company
British Tabulating Machine Company
The British Tabulating Machine Company was a firm which manufactured and sold Hollerith unit record equipment and other data-processing equipment...
in 1937.
Dickens joined the RNVR
Royal Naval Reserve
The Royal Naval Reserve is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. The present Royal Naval Reserve was formed in 1958 by merging the original Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve , a reserve of civilian volunteers founded in 1903...
on the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1939, leaving the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1946 as a First Lieutenant. While serving in Portsmouth he met his wife Elizabeth Mary Blake (1913–2008), who was serving as a WREN
Women's Royal Naval Service
The Women's Royal Naval Service was the women's branch of the Royal Navy.Members included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics...
, and whom he married in 1948
After leaving the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
Dickens returned to his old firm, which eventually became ICL, and where he became Director of Communication.
He was a life-long supporter of the Charles Dickens Museum. He was twice President of the Dickens Fellowship
Dickens Fellowship
The Dickens Fellowship was founded in 1902, and is an international association of people from all walks of life who share an interest in the life and works of Victorian era novelist Charles Dickens....
, a worldwide association of people who share an interest in the life and works of Charles Dickens, first taking that position on the death of his father in 1968, and again on his retirement in 1976, when he also founded the Dickens Pickwick Club, a society with an international membership. This he kept true to the spirit of the original in The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
by only allowing men to join, which in 2000 led to an accusation of sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
.
In demand internationally as a guest and speaker at meetings of Dickens Fellowships and other events connected with Charles Dickens, he also worked to preserve the heritage of the 'George and Vulture
George and Vulture
The George and Vulture was built in 1746 as a public house in Castle Court, near Lombard Street, City of London. There has been an inn on the site since 1268....
' inn, which was frequently mentioned in The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
, where Charles Dickens himself often drank, and which was threatened with demolition; and Gads Hill Place
Gads Hill Place
Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, sometimes spelt Gadshill Place and Gad's Hill Place, was the country home of Charles Dickens, the most successful British author of the Victorian era....
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Dicken's final home, becoming a governor of Gad's Hill School
Gad's Hill School
Gad's Hill School in Kent, England was formerly Gads Hill Place, the country home of Charles Dickens. It became an independent, private day school in 1924.-Traditions:...
, which occupies the building today.
Dickens suffered a severe stroke following emergency surgery, and died on February 11 2006 aged 89.
Publications
- Christmas With Dickens: The Dickens' Family's 150th Anniversary Gift of a Christmas Carol for Modern-Day Families at Yuletide by Cedric Charles Dickens, David Dickens and Betty Dickens. Pub. by Belvedere Press (1993)
- 'The Sayings of Charles Dickens' Cedric Charles Dickens (Editor) Pub. by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd (2006)
- 'Drinking with Dickens' Cedric Charles Dickens Pub. by New Amsterdam Books (1988)
- The "George and Vulture" in "Pickwick Papers" Cedric Charles Dickens Pub. by Dickens Publishing (1995)
- 'The Miracle of Pickwick or ..the Goodness of Pickwickedness' Cedric Charles Dickens & Alan S. Watts Pub. by Dickens Publishing (2001)
- 'Dining with Dickens' Cedric Charles Dickens Pub. by Elvendon Press (1984)
External links
- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article733383.eceObituary in The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
] - Interview with Dickens
- Dickens on Peerage.com
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/modern-pickwickians-maintain-bar-on-women-626809.htmlDickens in The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
].