Cedric Charles Dickens

Cedric David Charles Dickens (September 24, 1916–February 11, 2006), author and businessman, was the great-grandson of British author Charles Dickens and steward of his literary legacy.

Born in Durham, Cedric 'Ceddy' Dickens was the the son of Philip 'Pip' Charles Dickens, a chartered accountant and the first secretary of ICI, and the grandson of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, the sixth of Dicken’s ten children, and a Common Serjeant of London. He attended Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in Law in 1935. [Trinity Hall, Cambridge Newsletter Michaelmas 2006] Following three trips to the Caribbean by banana boat, Dickens joined the British Tabulating Machine Company in 1937.

Dickens joined the RNVR on the outbreak of World War II in 1939, ending the War as a first lieutenant. While serving in Portsmouth he met his wife Elizabeth Mary Blake (1913–2008), who was serving as a WREN, and whom he married in 1948 [Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, editor, Burke's Irish Family Records (London, U.K.: Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976), Blake, page 123]

After leaving the Royal Navy Dickens returned to his old firm, which eventually became ICL, and where he became Director of Communication. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article733383.ece]

He was a life-long supporter of the Charles Dickens Museum [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article733383.ece] , and, on the death of his father in 1968, he became President of the Dickens Fellowship, a worldwide association of people who share an interest in the life and works of Charles Dickens. [http://www.britannia.com/cooking/cedric.html] Following his retirement from ICL in 1976 he founded the Dickens Pickwick Club, a society with an international membership, and which he kept true to the spirit of the original in "The Pickwick Papers" by only allowing men to join, which in 2000 led to an accusation of sexism. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/modern-pickwickians-maintain-bar-on-women-626809.html]

In demand internationally as a guest annd 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' inn, which was mentioned in "The Pickwick Papers", [The "George and Vulture" in "Pickwick Papers" Cedric Charles Dickens Pub. by Dickens Publishing (1995)] , and where Charles Dickens himself often drank, and which was threatened with demolition; and Gad's Hill Place in Kent, Dicken's final home, becoming a governor of Gad's Hill School, which occupies the building today. [http://www.gadshill.org/docs/news/newsdetails.php?recordID=86]

References

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.ece Obituary in The Times]
* [http://www.britannia.com/cooking/cedric.html Interview with Dickens]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/p27623.htm Dickens on Peerage.com]
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/modern-pickwickians-maintain-bar-on-women-626809.html Dickens in The Independent] .