[1] Born in Amherst, the son of Robert McGowan Dickey and Eleanor Chapman,[2] he was educated at Windsor Academy and later studied law with Alexander Stewart.

Dickey was a director of the Nova Scotia Electric Telegraph Company and consular agent for the United States at Amherst.

In 1867, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada[3] representing the senatorial division of Amherst, Nova Scotia.

His son Arthur Rupert Dickey served as a member of the House of Commons.

His daughter Mary married the English landscape architect Henry Ernest Milner.