[2][3][4][5] His wife Elizabeth Dickens, and her four youngest children, including the two-year-old Alfred, joined her husband in the Marshalsea in April 1824.

[6] Some years later, John Dickens was again briefly imprisoned for debt and was released only when his son Charles borrowed money from his friends based on the security of his salary.

[7] Charles Dickens wrote to his friend Angela Burdett-Coutts asking her to help Alfred to find a position as an engineer, "knowing the kind interest you take in any application or design of mine.

One such in 1855, was Alfred Dickens's report which highlighted the terrible overcrowding suffered by many people in the Canning Town area of London.

His widow, Helen, and their five children were living in Manchester at the time of his death, and Charles went there at once and brought them back with him to London.