Gordon Dickson was born in Yorkshire on 15 April 1920. He qualified in dentistry in Sheffield and served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War. Developing an interest in orthodontics, he was the second consultant orthodontist to be appointed after the formation of the National Health Service in 1948. Initially in Birmingham, he moved to the south coast to establish a new department at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital in 1957. Gordon developed a close working relationship with local colleagues and at an early stage established an innovative, part-time training programme and support service for dental practitioners undertaking orthodontic treatment. He was the author of *Orthodontics in general dental practice* and co-authored with Albert Wheatley, his technician, *An atlas of removable orthodontic appliances*. These became standard texts and were translated into several languages. He was active in the British Dental Association and served as chairman of the Portsmouth Section. He was later elected a life member of the Association. He was invited to deliver the Northcroft Lecture of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics in 1969 and served as president of the Society. He was elected as a member the Board of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1972 and vice-dean in 1978. At Portsmouth his personal qualities earned the respect of his consultant colleagues and he was elected chairman of medical staff. He retired from clinical practice in 1985. Outside a distinguished career in dentistry, he had a love of music and combined his interests in natural history and photography. He received an award from the British Mycological Society in 1987 for organising a mycological survey in the Amazonian rain forest in Ecuador. In 1996 he co-authored *The fungi of the new forest – a mycota*, which became a definitive reference book. Gordon was held in great affection by those who knew him. He died in Hampshire on 1 August 2013 in his 94th year. His wife Joy predeceased him but he is survived by his sons Richard and Robert, his daughter Diana and four grandchildren.