Born at Glasgow on 17 September 1891, he was educated at Lanark Grammar School and Edinburgh University where he graduated in 1914. After holding a resident appointment at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary he joined the RAMC and served in Mesopotamia, Persia and India; he was mentioned in dispatches for his services on the North-West Frontier. After the war he did postgraduate work at the London and University College Hospitals and in 1920 obtained the FRCS. After a period at the Royal Northern, he became registrar at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. In 1924 Muir Dickson was elected surgeon to the Willesden General Hospital, at that time a cottage hospital. He realised the limitations of the services offered, and established consultative out-patient sessions in 1927. Shortly after this the other specialists established out-patient sessions too, taking an important step towards creating a general hospital. In 1934 Dickson was elected surgeon to the Victoria Hospital for Children, Tite Street, a post he held until his death. During the second world war Dickson rejoined the RAMC in 1941. After serving for a while in England he was posted to the Near East. He spent two years in Palestine and Cyprus, and was then transferred to Gibraltar in charge of a surgical division, where he accomplished magnificent work. He was demobilised in 1945 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and immediately resumed his civilian work. In 1955 he underwent the first of a series of abdominal operations. Though knowing that his illness was incurable, after each operation he returned to work as quickly as possible, but finally was obliged to enter Willesden General Hospital just after Christmas 1955; by the following September, when he was due to retire, he would have served 32 years on the consultant staff. He died on 13 February 1956, aged 64.