Frances Elizabeth (Fanny) Dickens was the elder sister 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 ...

, a pianist and singer who trained at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

Early life and career

Born in

Landport Landport is a district located on Portsea Island and is considered the city centre of modern-day Portsmouth, England. The district is centred around Commercial Road and encompasses the Guildhall, Civic Centre, Portsmouth and Southsea Statio ...

on 28 August 1810 and baptised on 23 November at

St Mary's Church, Portsea St Mary's Church is the main Church of England parish church for the areas of Portsea and Fratton, both located in the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire. Standing on the oldest church site on Portsea Island, the present building, amongst the largest ...

, she was the eldest of eight children of

Elizabeth Dickens Elizabeth Culliford Dickens (née Barrow; 21 December 1789 – 13 September 1863) was the wife of John Dickens and the mother of British novelist Charles Dickens. She was the source for Mrs. Nickleby in her son's novel ''Nicholas Nickleby'' and ...

, ''née'' Barrow, and

John Dickens John Dickens (21 August 1785 – 31 March 1851) was the father of famous English novelist Charles Dickens and was the model for Mr Micawber in his son's semi-autobiographical novel ''David Copperfield''. Biography The son of William Dickens (17 ...

, a clerk in the Navy Pay Office.

was the second child of the family, born in 1812. Dickens showed musical ability and in 1823 gained a place at the

which had opened the year before in Tenterden Street, off Hanover Square. The fees were thirty-eight guineas a year which her family could ill afford but, unusually for the time, they paid for a daughter to be educated rather than their sons. Dickens studied singing, and piano with

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano at the ...

, a former pupil of

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

. In her second year she received a prize for ‘good conduct and improvement in music’ and a silver pencil case as 2nd prize in piano. In 1835 she sang in a concert as part of a group which included Henry Burnett, who had studied at the Academy. They married on 13 September 1837 at

St Luke's Church, Chelsea The Parish Church of St Luke, Chelsea, is an Anglican church, on Sydney Street, Chelsea, London SW3, just off the King's Road. Ecclesiastically it is in the Deanery of Chelsea, part of the Diocese of London. It was designed by James Savage in 1 ...

, where Charles Dickens had married Catherine Hogarth the year before.

Personal life

The couple had two sons: Henry Augustus in 1839, and Charles Dickens Kneller in 1841, both born in London. Henry Jr was a disabled and sickly child and is said to have been the inspiration for Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens’s ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas C ...

''. The family moved to Manchester, where Dickens and Henry continued their singing, although "once Fanny Dickens had married and become a mother, her career declined, gifted and musically educated as she was". She developed

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and moved, with the family, back to London for treatment, but died on 2 September 1848 after a lingering illness at the age of 38. She was buried in the dissenters section of the western side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

. Their son Henry died soon after in 1849 and is buried with his mother. Her parents are buried nearby in the cemetery, as are other members 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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickens, Fanny 1810 births 1848 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music 19th-century British women singers Burials at Highgate Cemetery

Early life and career

Personal life

See also

References