Francis Dickens

Dickens, Francis Jeffrey

Francis Jeffrey Dickens, North-West Mounted Police inspector (b at London, Eng 15 Jan 1844; d at Moline, Ill 11 June 1886), third son of Charles Dickens. In 1864, after numerous unsuccessful career starts, Dickens joined the Bengal Mounted Police in India. He returned to England in 1871 and eventually obtained a commission in the NWMP in 1874. His unspectacular career was marked by recklessness, laziness and heavy drinking. He retired in 1886 and died shortly thereafter. Dickens can be blamed for worsening relations between the Blackfoot and the NWMP and for the growing antipathy of the officer cadre toward Englishmen.