Dickens, Henry Fielding

LAWYER (ENGLAND)
BORN 16 Jan 1849, London - DIED 21 Dec 1933, London: St. Luke's Hospital, Chelsea
CAUSE OF DEATH consequences of being hit by a motorcycle
GRAVE LOCATION London: Putney Vale, Stag Lane (Plot L)

Henry Fielding Dickens was the last surviving son of Charles Dickens. He was named after Henry Fielding, a favourite author of his father. He was educated at Wimbledon and at Boulogne-sur-Mer and entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1868. He graduated in mathematics and subsequently studied law.

In 1873 he was called to the bar. He married Marie Roche (1852-1940) in 1876 and they had seven children. In 1892 he was appointed Queen's Counsil. He became a Bencher of the Inner Temple in 1899. In 1902 he defended Kitty Byron who stood trial for the murder of her lover. She was convicted but his defense caused a public petition that resulted in a reduced sentence.

In 1917 he became Common Serjaent of London at the Old Bailey in London, judging trials until he retired in 1932. When he crossed Chelsea Embankment in 1933 he was hit by a motorcycle and he died two weeks later at St. Luke's Hospital. Among his descendents are the authors Monica Dickens and Lucinda Hawksley and the actor Gerald Dickens.

Family
• Father: Dickens, Charles
• Mother: Hogarth, Catherine
• Sister: Dickens, Kate
• Brother: Dickens, Charles Culliford Boz
• Sister: Dickens, Mary
• Brother: Dickens, Alfred Tennyson

Events
3/9/1859Charles Dickens burns 20 years of correspondence. Three of his children, among them Kate, helped him. Kate begged her father to keep at least some some letters. Dickens burnt letters from Washington Irving, Thomas Carlyle, William Makepeace Thackeray, Alfred Tennyson and others. Henry Dickens observed later that he and his brother 'roasted onions on the ashes of the great'. [Dickens, Charles][Dickens, Kate][Irving, Washington][Thackeray, William Makepeace]

Images

The grave of Henry Fielding Dickens at Putney Vale Cemetery, London.
Picture by Androom (12 May 2011)

 

Sources
• Meller, Hugh, London Cemeteries, An illustrated Guide and Gazetteer, Avebury Publishing, Amersham, 1981
Henry Fielding Dickens - Wikipedia


Dickens, Kate

Published: 26 Jan 2013
Last update: 08 Mar 2022