Finding Henry Baron Dickinson of Tunbridge Wells

It's a definite help when you can find a photograph that tells you, without words, the occupation of the person in the photograph.  Today's photograph was signed "Henry Baron Dickinson, Xmas 1881" and taken at the C. F. Wing Gallery in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.  It is clear he is a member of the clergy because he is wearing a clerical collar.

I first went to the 1881 England Census and found Henry Baron Dickinson, age 28, born in Brixton, Surrey and married to wife Esther on 14 Beulah Road in Tunbridge Wells.  His occupation is listed as Curate at St. James, Tunbridge Wells.

Working back to 1871, I found Henry B. Dickinson, (born 1853 in Brixton, Surrey)  living with his widowed mother, Catherine M. Dickinson in Hove, Sussex with sisters Emmeline (b.1854) and Catherine (b.1856).  The 1861 England Census for Lee Parish, Kent, provides us with the name of Henry's father:  Henry Dickinson, born 1807 in Deptford, Kent, England .  In 1861, in addition to his two sisters, there is also a brother named Frederick, aged 4.  Frederick does not appear in the 1871 census.  There is a good chance Frederick died young, and a search of the parish records would confirm this.

According to England & Wales Marriages, 1538-1940 on Ancestry, Henry Baron was just married a year and a half when this photograph was taken.  He wed Esther Wakeling, daughter of George Wakeling on the 15th of April 1880 in Brighton, Sussex.

In the 1891 England census, the couple lived in the parish of St. Peter's, Streatham, London, where Rev. Dickinson was the Curate of the parish 1890-1904.  St. Peter's Church provides us with a picture of Henry Baron Dickinson on their church history website which confirms the identity of the man in our photograph. They are clearly the same person.  After St. Peter's, he became Vicar of St. Stephen's, Lewisham from 1904 to 1922.

In 1913, Henry Baron came to the US for a visit.  He arrived in New York on May 4th, 1913 on the ship Caronia.  He lists his nearest relative as "Sherwell Blackheath."

It appears that the Reverend and his wife did not have any children.  Henry Baron Dickinson attended Trinity Hall and so I was able to find him in the Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 database.  He died Nov. 12, 1925, at Beckenham, Kent.