Dr Alexander Graeme Dickson CBE (23 May 1914 – 23 September 1994) was the founder of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
Dickson graduated from Oxford University in 1935 and worked as a foreign correspondent in Central Europe during the rise of Hitler.
[2] The Dicksons worked with refugees on the Austro-Hungarian frontier in 1956-57; this inspired them to found Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in 1958.
[3] VSO was created to send volunteers to developing countries, and Dickson's idea came from his own "Christian but non-denominational faith".
[4] The first 16 volunteers went to Sarawak, Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia having responded to an article in The Sunday Times, written by Alec Dickson but credited to Lancelot Fleming, then Bishop of Portsmouth.