Dickson was born in Greencastle, and grew up off the Donegall Road in Belfast,[1] where he studied at Kelvin Secondary School.
[2] Dickson first rose to prominence in 1970, as the secretary of the Donegall Road Defence Committee, at which time he was also active in Ian Paisley's Protestant Unionist Party (PUP).
[4] Dickson was selected as a candidate for Belfast West at the 1982 Northern Ireland Assembly election.
[10] He served as a Royal Ulster Constabulary Reservist, and from 2007 had a weekly column in the South Belfast Community Telegraph.
[1] Dickson later joined Traditional Unionist Voice, and at the 2014 Northern Ireland local elections, he stood unsuccessfully for the party in Botanic.