Frederick Victor Dickins (24 May 1838 – 16 August 1915) was a British

naval surgeon A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail. Ancient uses Speciali ...

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

, orientalist and university administrator. He is now remembered as a translator of

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...

Life

Dickins was born at 44 Connaught Terrace in

Paddington Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Paddi ...

, London''1911 England Census'' to Thomas Dickins and Jane Dickins.''London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813–1917'' He first visited

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as a medical officer on HMS ''Coromandel'' in 1863. For three years he was at

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

in charge of medical facilities there. During this time he was in contact with Japanese doctors and culture, and also

Ernest Satow Sir Ernest Mason Satow, (30 June 1843 – 26 August 1929), was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist. Satow is better known in Japan than in Britain or the other countries in which he served, where he was known as . He was a key fig ...

who became a lifelong correspondent and friend. He began publishing English translations of Japanese classical works at this time. He left his naval position, returned to England and tried some career choices, but came back to Japan in 1871, having in the meantime married and been

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

. He built up a legal practice in Japan. In the Maria Luz jurisdiction case he represented the Peruvian captain of the ship.Sir Ernest Satow's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist from 1870 to 1918
Ernest Mason Satow, Ian C. Ruxton, Lulu.com, 2008 He was also widely involved with the Yokohama community, with botany, and journalism. Dickins was especially interested in ferns which he collected at Yokohama and Atami, 1863–65. He sent both living plants and drawings back to

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

at the Royal Botanic Gardens at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...

. He returned to England in 1879. After spending some further time practising law in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, he mostly devoted himself to Japanese studies and administration in the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He was appointed CB in the 1901 New Year Honours.

Works

*''The Collected Works of Frederick Victor Dickins'' (Bristol: Ganesha, Tokyo: Edition Synapse 1999) reprinted in seven volumes with an introduction by

Peter Kornicki Peter Francis Kornicki (born 1 May 1950) FBA is an English Japanologist. He is Emeritus Professor of Japanese at Cambridge University and Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. Kornicki was born at Maidenhead on 1 May 1950, the eldest s ...

* Dickins co-authored a Life of Sir Harry Parkes with Stanley Lane-Poole. Lane-Poole wrote the first volume on Parkes in China, Dickins the second volume on Parkes in Japan.

Letters to Dickins

*''Sir

's Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins'' edited by Ian Ruxton with an introduction by

, Lulu Press Inc, February 2008

Honours

In 1885, French botanist

Adrien René Franchet Adrien René Franchet (21 April 1834 in Pezou – 15 February 1900 in Paris) was a French botanist, based at the Paris Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. He is noted for his extensive work describing the flora of China and Japan, base ...

in Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., séries 2, Vol.8 on page 244 published and described a plant from China. He named the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

, ''

Dickinsia ''Dickinsia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. The only known species is ''Dickinsia hydrocotyloides''. Its native range is Central China. The genus is named after Frederick Dickins (1838–1915), Brit ...

'' in honour of Frederick Dickins.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickins, Frederick Victor 1838 births 1915 deaths British orientalists British Japanologists British barristers British surgeons Companions of the Order of the Bath Royal Navy Medical Service officers 19th-century British translators People from Paddington