Dickinson was born in Longhoughton, Northumberland in the United Kingdom, the only son of Harry G. Dickinson, priest, and his second wife Edina C. V. Johnson; he was baptised on 23 June 1901 at Longhoughton by his father,[1] and educated at Jesus College, Oxford before training for ordination at Cuddesdon College.
[1] He served as curate of St John's Middlesbrough from 1925 to 1929 and became a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) missionary in South Tokyo from 1929 to 1931, when he was appointed Assistant Bishop of Melanesia.
He held the post of assistant bishop (for the Southern archdeaconry) until he resigned before April 1937.
[1] Just before resigning his See, Dickinson had returned to Britain; on 4 June 1937 he was instituted Vicar of Felkirk-with-Brierley, West Riding of Yorkshire[1] He moved North in 1942 to become vicar of Warkworth, Northumberland; and was (additionally) appointed an honorary canon of Newcastle Cathedral in 1947.
In 1959, he left Warkworth to become vicar of Chollerton, also in Northumberland, remaining honorary canon;[2] he retired in 1971 to Riding Mill.