Dick Dalgleish was born in Scotland, and his family moved to New Zealand in 1893.
[2][3] His father, one of the proprietors of the Timaru Woollen Mills, died in June 1900 after falling from a train near Palmerston.
[4] When the touring Lord Hawke's XI played a South Canterbury XVIII at Timaru in February 1903, Dalgleish took five wickets in each innings for South Canterbury.
[6] For Hawke's Bay, in his second first-class match, against Wellington in 1907-08, Dalgleish took 3 for 20 and 5 for 49.
[10] Dalgleish married Nita Kelly in Napier on 23 December 1908.