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Second Lieutenant Humphrey Neville DICKINSON, 3rd  Battalion, attached 6th Battalion, Queens Own Royal West Kent  Regiment, died of wounds, 13th October 1916, age 34.

Son of Henry and Ellen Marion Dickinson, of "Martins," Burnham, Buckinghamshire. Student, Balliol College, Oxford. Barrister at Law, Inner Temple.

Commemorated at St Sever Cemetery, Officers, B. 1. 36., Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France.

London Gazette 5th January 1915.

The undermentioned to be Second Lieutenants (on probation).

Humphrey Neville Dickinson, 3rd Battalion, Royal West Kent Regiment.

London Gazette 10th August 1915.

The undermentioned Second Lieutenants (on probation) are confirmed in their rank.

3rd Battalion, The Royal West Kent Regiment. Humphrey Neville Dickinson.

OBITUARY

Humphrey Neville Dickinson.

Son of Henry Dickinson of Harrow, was born on January 15th, 1882, and from 1895-1900 was at Harrow School, where he was a monitor. He came up to Balliol in 1900, and was a well known member of the more Conservative circles in undergraduate political life; he maintained his political interests keenly after he went down; he wrote a good deal from the Conservative standpoint on both political and religious subjects, and threw himself eagerly into the cause of Tariff Reform, taking an active part in the elections of 1906 and 1910, and acting for some time as Secretary of the Compatriots Club. But despite the intensity of his convictions, a certain diffidence or modesty prevented him from becoming a prominent figure in public life. He was a Barrister of the Inner Temple.

He was better known to the world through the novels which he wrote. The first, Things that are Caesar's, was written just after he took his degree, and dealt under a veil with the political movements in undergraduate life in which he had played a part. His next novel, Sir Guy and Lady Rannard, was an experiment in a sensational style, and was not successful. It was in Keddy, published in 1907, that his talents appeared at their best. This was a story of Oxford life, and gave a vivid and interesting picture of some aspects of that complex world, though opinions may differ, as they will differ in regard to any Oxford story, as to the real importance in the life of Oxford of the small set of men who are described in the book.

In his last book, The Business of a Gentleman, he appears to express his own political and social ideals, and many critics think this his best work. In addition to these, a strange and imaginative little story, Thomson's Friend, was printed by his parents not long after his death.

Late in 1914 he took a commission in the 3rd (Special Reserve) Royal West Kent Regiment, and was soon afterwards attached to the staff of the G.O.C. Thames and Medway Defences at Chatham, but rejoined his Regiment in order to go to France with the 6th Battalion in August 1916. After a few comparitively quiet weeks, the regiment was sent to the Somme. While they were in the trenches just in front of the village of Guedecourt, he was very badly injured by a shell which burst close by, but continued on duty, encouraging his men for the attack which was about to begin, until all the other wounded had been attended to. He died of his wounds a week later at Rouen.