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Francis Jeffrey “Frank” Dickens

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Francis Jeffrey “Frank” Dickens

Birth
London, City of London, Greater London, England
Death
11 Jun 1886 (aged 42)
Moline, Rock Island County, Illinois, USA
Burial
Moline, Rock Island County, Illinois, USA
Plot
East Terraces Section, at Deere Cross, on Summit Concourse
Memorial ID
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Francis Jeffery was the fifth son and third child of Charles and Catherine Dickens. He was named after his godfather, Lord Jeffrey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review. Like his brothers, Alfred and Sydney, Frank was educated in Boulogne. He considered studying medicine in France and Germany, but abandoned this with the intention of farming in Canada or Australia. However, this never materialised. His father found him a job on the magazine "All The Year Round", but Frank was unsuited to office life or to journalism. In January 1864, he went to India to join his brother Walter, only to find that the latter had died on New Year's Eve. He joined the Bengal Mounted Police, but returned to England after his father's death. Having squandered his inheritance, he managed to find a position with the North West Mounted Police because his mother's aunt, Georgina Hogarth, was an acquaintance of Lord Dufferin. He served in Canada from Autumn 1874 until February 1886, allegedly because of increasing deafness. For some months after this, he applied for several jobs, but obtained none of them. Lord Dufferin had, by this time, returned to England, so Frank was unable to benefit from his influence, and was forced to pawn his father's watch. In Ottawa, he had met a physician from Moline in Illinois, Dr. A.W. Jamieson. Upon hearing that Frank Dickens had fallen upon difficult times, the doctor invited him to Moline to give a speech upon his distinguished father. However, on the evening he was due to speak, he died of a heart attack. He was buried in Moline, with the epitaph, "Take ye heed, watch and pray for ye know not what the time is." On September 24th. 2002, an official N.W.M.P tombstone was unveiled over his grave.
Francis Jeffery was the fifth son and third child of Charles and Catherine Dickens. He was named after his godfather, Lord Jeffrey, the editor of the Edinburgh Review. Like his brothers, Alfred and Sydney, Frank was educated in Boulogne. He considered studying medicine in France and Germany, but abandoned this with the intention of farming in Canada or Australia. However, this never materialised. His father found him a job on the magazine "All The Year Round", but Frank was unsuited to office life or to journalism. In January 1864, he went to India to join his brother Walter, only to find that the latter had died on New Year's Eve. He joined the Bengal Mounted Police, but returned to England after his father's death. Having squandered his inheritance, he managed to find a position with the North West Mounted Police because his mother's aunt, Georgina Hogarth, was an acquaintance of Lord Dufferin. He served in Canada from Autumn 1874 until February 1886, allegedly because of increasing deafness. For some months after this, he applied for several jobs, but obtained none of them. Lord Dufferin had, by this time, returned to England, so Frank was unable to benefit from his influence, and was forced to pawn his father's watch. In Ottawa, he had met a physician from Moline in Illinois, Dr. A.W. Jamieson. Upon hearing that Frank Dickens had fallen upon difficult times, the doctor invited him to Moline to give a speech upon his distinguished father. However, on the evening he was due to speak, he died of a heart attack. He was buried in Moline, with the epitaph, "Take ye heed, watch and pray for ye know not what the time is." On September 24th. 2002, an official N.W.M.P tombstone was unveiled over his grave.

Bio by: Iain MacFarlaine

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