DICKSON, Elizabeth (dau. of Archibald Dalzel, governor of Cape Coast Castle). b. probably at Cape Coast Castle 1793; wrote to the English press about 1809 to entreat that immediate steps might be taken to relieve the British captives in Barbary, the matter roused public feeling and resulted in the despatch of an expedition under Lord Exmouth 1816; received a gold medal from the Anti-Piratical Society of Knights and Noble Ladies; resided in Africa, chiefly at Tripoli. (m. John Dickson, surgeon to Lord Nelson at battle of Copenhagen). d. Tripoli 30 April 1862 aged about 70.
DICKSON, Ellen (3 dau. of general Sir Alexander Dickson). b. Woolwich 1819; an invalid from her youth; resided chiefly at Lyndhurst, New Forest; composed under pseudonym of Dolores upwards of 50 drawing-room songs which were very popular and some of which are still sung, the best known of them are As I lay a thynkinge 1857; The Brook 1857; The Fairies; Clear and cool; The land of long ago; O my lost love; The racing river; Tell her not when I am gone. d. Lyndhurst 4 July 1878.
DICKSON, James A. b. London 1774; made his first appearance on the stage in Boston, United States 1794 as Saville in The Belle’s Stratagem; became eminent as an actor of comic old men; manager of Boston theatre for some years from 1806; retired from the stage 14 April 1817. d. Boston 1 April 1853.
DICKSON, John Bourmaster. b. 29 April 1815; entered navy 1834; captain 17 May 1854; retired R.A. 1 April 1870; C.B. 20 May 1871. d. Thornborough, Ryde 11 Feb. 1876.
DICKSON, John Robinson. b. Dungannon, co. Tyrone 15 Nov. 1819; went to Canada 1838; graduated at Univ. of New York 1842; visiting physician to general hospital at Kingston, Canada 1846–54, visiting surgeon 1854–56, clinical lecturer 1856–60; dean of the medical faculty and professor of surgery in Univ. of Queen’s college, Kingston 1854, the name was altered in 1866 to Royal College of physicians and surgeons, of which he was pres. 1866 to death. d. Wolfe island, St. Lawrence river, Canada 23 Nov. 1882.
DICKSON, Sir Joseph Ritchie Lyon (2 son of Elizabeth Dickson 1793–1862). b. 1820; physician to British legation at Teheran, Persia 11 Sep. 1847 to death; attended the Shah for typhus fever 1849 for which he received the Commander’s Star of the Lion and Sun; accompanied the Shah to England 1873; knighted at Windsor Castle 30 June 1873. d. St. Juliens, Malta on his way home from Persia 7 Aug. 1887.
DICKSON, Robert. b. Dumfries 1804; ed. at high sch. and univ. of Edin., M.D. 1826; a physician in London to 1866; L.R.C.P. 1831, F.R.C.P. 1855; lectured on botany at medical school in Webb st. London and afterwards at St. George’s hospital; author of A lecture on the dry rot 1837; wrote all the articles on Materia Medica in the Penny Cyclopædia 1833–58 and several articles on popular science in Church of England Mag. d. Cambridge lodge, Harmondsworth near Slough 13 Oct. 1875. Medical times and gazette ii, 509–10, 669 (1875); Proc. of Royal Med. and Chir. Soc. viii, 73 (1875).
DICKSON, Samuel. Educ. at Univ. of Edin. and in Paris; M.R.C.S. Edin. 1825; M.D. Glasgow 1833; assistant surgeon in army in India 1828–33; practised at Cheltenham 1833, then in London to his death; started The Chrono-thermalist, or People’s Medical Inquirer 1850 all of which he wrote himself, it ceased 1852; the Penn Medical College of Philadelphia was founded to teach his doctrines; he is drawn from life by Charles Reade in his novel Hard Cash 1863 as Dr. Sampson; author of The fallacy of the art of physic as taught in the schools 1836; Fallacies of the faculty being the spirit of the Chrono-thermal system 1839; What killed Mr. Drummond, the lead or the lancet? 1843, and 6 other books. d. 12 Bolton st. Piccadilly, London 12 Oct. 1869 aged 67. S. Dickson’s Memorable events in the life of a London physician (1863).
DICKSON, Thomas, b. Lauder, Berwickshire 26 March 1822; went to Canada 1835; established the Dickson Manufacturing Co. for building steam engines 1856 which became one of most important locomotive works in United States; general superintendent of Delaware and Hudson Canal Co. 1864, pres. 1869 to death; organised a company for purchase of a large tract of iron land on shores of Lake Champlain 1873; a director in 20 other companies, d. Morristown, New Jersey 31 July 1884.
DICKSON, William Gillespie (2 son of Henry Gordon Dickson of Edinburgh, writer to the signet). b. Edinburgh 9 April 1823; ed. at academy and univ. of Edin.; member of Faculty of Advocates 9 March 1847; procureur and advocate general of Mauritius, July 1856 to March 1868; senior sheriff substitute at Glasgow, March 1868; sheriff of Lanarkshire 21 Jany. 1874 to death; LLD. Edin. 22 April 1874; published A treatise on the law of evidence in Scotland 2 vols. 1855, 2 ed. 1864. d. Glasgow 19 Oct. 1876.