Cedric David Charles Dickens (24 September 1916 – 11 February 2006) was an English author and businessman, a great-grandson of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

and the steward of his literary legacy. He was a lifelong supporter of the Charles Dickens Museum in

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its roots ...

, London, and twice President of the Dickens Fellowship.

Biography

Dickens was the son of Philip "Pip" Charles Dickens (1887–1964), a chartered accountant and the first secretary of ICI. He was the grandson of Sir

Henry Fielding Dickens Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC (16 January 1849 – 21 December 1933), was the eighth of ten children born to English author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and ...

, the eighth of Dickens's ten children, a

Common Serjeant of London The Common Serjeant of London (full title The Serjeant-at-Law in the Common Hall) is an ancient British legal office, first recorded in 1291, and is the second most senior permanent judge of the Central Criminal Court after the Recorder of Lon ...

, and the nephew of Admiral Sir Gerald Charles Dickens. He attended

Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...

and

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, graduating in Law in 1935. After three trips to the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

by banana boat, Dickens joined the

British Tabulating Machine Company __NOTOC__ The British Tabulating Machine Company (BTM) was a firm which manufactured and sold Hollerith unit record equipment and other data-processing equipment. During World War II, BTM constructed some 200 "bombes", machines used at Bletchley P ...

in 1937. Dickens joined the

RNVR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

on the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1939, leaving the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

in 1946 as a

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

.''Cedric Charles Dickens Memorial Booklet''. City Pickwick Club (2006). While serving in Portsmouth, he met his wife, Elizabeth Mary Blake (1913–2008), who was a

WREN Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...

. They married in 1948. After leaving the

, Dickens returned to his old firm, which eventually became

ICL ICL may refer to: Companies and organizations * Idaho Conservation League * Imperial College London, a UK university * Indian Confederation of Labour * Indian Cricket League * Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford * Israel Ch ...

, of which he became Director of Communication.obituary
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' 22 February 2006. Dickens was a lifelong supporter of the Charles Dickens Museum in

, and twice President of the Dickens Fellowship, a worldwide association, first taking the position on the death of his father, and again on his retirement in 1976, when he also founded the international Dickens Pickwick Club. This he kept true to the spirit of '' The Pickwick Papers'' by allowing only men to join, which led in 2000 to an accusation of

sexism Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primari ...

In demand internationally as a guest and speaker at meetings of Dickens Fellowships and similar events, he also worked to preserve the heritage of the ''

George and Vulture The George and Vulture is a restaurant in London. There has been an inn on the site, which is off Lombard Street, London, Lombard Street in the historic City of London district, since 1142.The "George and Vulture" in "Pickwick Papers" Cedric Cha ...

'' in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, frequently mentioned in '' The Pickwick Papers'', but then threatened with demolition. Charles Dickens himself had often drunk there. He also associated himself with

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. Today the building is the independent Gad's Hill School. ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, Dicken's final home, becoming a governor of

Gad's Hill School Gad's Hill School in Higham, Kent, England, is an independent school for day pupils, founded in 1924. It is set in the former Gads Hill Place, the country home of Charles Dickens. School history Charles Dickens died in what is now the school c ...

, which occupies the building today. In 2005, he appeared in the first episode of

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

's documentary series '' Dickens in America'' with

Miriam Margolyes Miriam ( he, מִרְיָם ''Mīryām'', lit. 'Rebellion') is described in the Hebrew Bible as the daughter of Amram and Jochebed, and the older sister of Moses and Aaron. She was a prophetess and first appears in the Book of Exodus. The Tora ...

, when he talked about what it was like growing up as a member of the

Dickens family The Dickens family are the descendants of John Dickens, the father of the English novelist Charles Dickens. John Dickens was a clerk in the Royal Navy Pay Office and had eight children from his marriage to Elizabeth Barrow. Their second child and ...

. Dickens suffered a severe stroke after emergency surgery and died on 11 February 2006, aged 89. His autobiography, ''My Life'', appeared in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth. This was assembled from Dickens's own writings by his daughter, Jane Monk, and Marion Dickens Lloyd, introduced by Margolyes and launched at the Charles Dickens Museum in September 2016.

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. Belvedere Press (1993) *''The Sayings of Charles Dickens'', Cedric Charles Dickens (editor). Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd (2006) *''Drinking with Dickens'', Cedric Charles Dickens. New Amsterdam Books (1988) *''The "George and Vulture" in ''Pickwick Papers, Cedric Charles Dickens. Dickens Publishing (1995) *''The Miracle of Pickwick or... the Goodness of Pickwickedness'', Cedric Charles Dickens & Alan S. Watts. Dickens Publishing (2001) *''Dining with Dickens'', Cedric Charles Dickens. Elvendon Press (1984)

References

External links

Obituary
in

Interview with Dickens
in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dickens, Cedric Charles 1916 births 2006 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge English non-fiction writers Charles Dickens Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II

Biography

Publications

See also

References

External links