Dimsdale was the Managing Director of Prescott, Dimsdale and Co, bankers. He was a leading member of the
Grocers' Company, of which he was for a time Master. He was
Alderman of Cornhill from 1891 to 1902, was elected
Sheriff of London for 1893, and
Lord Mayor of London in September 1901 (serving November 1901 to November 1902). In the
1900 general election, he was elected as the
Member of Parliament (MP) for the
City of London, and served one term until 1906. He was
knighted in 1894, in commemoration of the opening of the
Tower Bridge and birth of an heir to the Throne while he was Sheriff. In 1902 he carried the
Crystal Sceptre of the
City of London in front of King
Edward VII at his
Coronation. The ceremony was rescheduled from June to August, due to the King's illness, but the
1902 Coronation Honours list was released on the intended coronation day on 26 June 1902, and announced that Dimsdale would receive a
baronetcy. He was created Baronet, of Goldsmiths, Langdon Hills, in the County of Essex and of Lancaster Street in the Borough of Paddington in the County of London, on 24 July 1902. Later that year he was invested by the King as a Knight Commander of the
Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) on 24 October 1902 (gazetted in the November
1902 Birthday Honours list.). In June 1902 he received the 2nd class of the Japanese
Order of the Rising Sun from
Prince Komatsu Akihito, who was received formally at Mansion House as part of his visit to the United Kingdom to attend the coronation. Another coronation guest who was formally received by the city was
Ras Makonnen, the special envoy of the
Emperor of Ethiopia. After his departure from the United Kingdom in August 1902, it was announced that Dimsdale received the 2nd class of the
Order of the Star of Ethiopia, and the city a gift of a silver mounted shield, a silver-gilt mounted sword, and an Abyssinian spear to mark the visit. During his year as Lord Mayor, he also paid official visits to English cities. He visited
Wolverhampton in July 1902, where he received the
honorary freedom of the borough in a ceremony attended by the two Sheriffs of the City of London and 20 Mayors from boroughs in the Midlands. In September that year, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs visited
Bath and
Exeter. A
Past Grand Warden of the
Freemasons of England, he was also an active member of the
Primrose League. whilst in the office of
Chamberlain of the City of London, a position he had held since being elected unanimously in November 1902. A portrait of Dimsdale, in his robes of Lord Mayor holding the crystal scepter which he carried at the 1902 coronation, was unveiled at
Grocers' Hall in October 1902. ==Family==