Alfred Lamert Dickens
| Alfred Lamert Dickens | |
|---|---|
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| Born | March 1822 London |
| Died | 1860 (aged 37–38) Manchester |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Railway Engineer |
| Known for | Brother of novelist Charles Dickens. |
Alfred Lamert Dickens (1822–1860) was a younger brother of the Victorian novelist Charles Dickens and a railway engineer.
As a boy Alfred, nicknamed Enrique by friends, attended a school in Hampstead with his brother Frederick Dickens for two years, until his father John Dickens could no longer afford the fees. At the end of the school day the boys would be collected by their older brother, Charles. On 20 February 1824 John Dickens was imprisoned in the Marshalsea Debtors' Prison for debt under the Insolvent Debtor's Act of 1813, because he owed a baker, James Kerr, £40 and 10 shillings. His wife Elizabeth Dickens, and her four youngest children, including the two-year-old Alfred, joined her husband in the Marshalsea in April 1824. John Dickens was released after three months, on 28 May 1824.
Some years later, John Dickens was again briefly imprisoned for debt and was released only when his son Charles borrowed money from his friends based on the security of his salary. However, on his release from prison John Dickens immediately wrote begging letters to those same friends of his son's also asking for money. He wrote to Thomas Beard claiming that his son Alfred "is walking to and from Hampstead daily in dancing Pumps".
Charles Dickens wrote to his friend Angela Burdett-Coutts asking her to help Alfred to find a position as an engineer, "knowing the kind interest you take in any application or design of mine." Alfred Dickens later became an engineer for the Malton & Driffield Railway.
In 1845 at the age of 22 Alfred was Resident Engineer at Malton, supervising railway construction for the contractor, John Cass Birkinshaw. Alfred lived firstly at Hillside Cottage, Malton, but after his marriage on 16 May 1846 to Helen, daughter of Robert Dobson, the stationmaster at Strensall, he lived for a time in York where he was visited by his elder brother Charles in December 1847.
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