Dickinson was a younger son of Richard Sebastian Willoughby Dickinson
DSO, only son of
Willoughby Dickinson, 1st Baron Dickinson. His father was an officer of the
Colonial Service, and his mother, Nancy Lovemore, was a sculptor. He and his middle brother
Peter Dickinson were born in
Northern Rhodesia. The family returned to England in 1934, and his father died the next year. He was educated at
Westminster School and
Trinity College, Oxford, and in May 1944 was granted the rank of a baron's younger son. Dickinson was
ordained in the
Church of England in 1957, after a period of study at
Ripon College Cuddesdon. He was a
curate at
St Michael's, Melksham, then
chaplain at
Trinity College, Cambridge, and at
Winchester College. In 1969 he became
Bishop Bardsley's Adviser for Adult Education in the
Diocese of Coventry and was subsequently
vicar of
St Michael's, St Albans, from 1977 until 1986, when he was appointed Dean of Salisbury. In that role he was involved in the foundation of
Sarum College in 1995. and later served as an assistant priest at
St John the Baptist, Cirencester. Dickinson married Jean Storey in June 1963 and they had two children: Teresa (born 1964) and Benjamin (born 1966). ==References==