The son of the papermaker John Dickinson of Nash Mills, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, he was born on 28 December 1815 and educated at Eton College.
[3] Another activist was Francis Carnac Brown who had been a committee member of the earlier British India Society, formed in 1839 by Joseph Pease (1772–1846).
[4][5] The debate in parliament of 1853 on the renewal of the East India Company's charter gave the society a short-term objective, and the maintenance of good faith towards the Indian states a major theme.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 made for another push, in efforts towards moderation, and to prevent exclusive attention to penal and repressive measures, and Dickinson organised a series of public meetings.
[1] After 1859 the India Reform Society began to languish: at a meeting in 1861 Bright resigned the chairmanship, and carried by a motion appointing Dickinson his successor.