Born on 16 March 1869 at Stoneycroft, Green Lane, Liverpool, the fourth child and second son of John Edward Dickinson, owner of the Liver Block Works, Peter's Lane, Liverpool, and Elizabeth Humphreys, his wife. He was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School, Great Crosby, Liverpool and at Liverpool University College, then a constituent of the Victoria University, where he won medals in botany, surgery, anatomy, physiology, and midwifery and the Harvey Gibson prize, and took honours at his qualification. He completed his medical training at St Bartholomew's and at the Rotunda, Dublin. After serving as house surgeon at Bootle Borough Hospital, he was for a period resident medical officer of the Liverpool Lock Hospital, house surgeon and house physician in the Thornton wards for diseases of women at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and assistant laryngologist, aurist, and ophthalmologist in the infirmary. He was then appointed assistant surgeon to the Liverpool Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and surgeon to the Birkenhead Borough Hospital. In 1900 he settled in practice at Hereford, first at 21 King's Road and afterwards at Greyfriars. Dickinson married on 18 February 1911 Ellen Peto Yetts, who survived him with two daughters. After retiring Dickinson lived at Tannachie, West Malvern, Worcestershire. During the second world war he served on the medical examination board for recruits at Worcester till within a short time of his death, which took place at West Malvern on 12 January 1943.