(from Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens)
"Children of Dickens". Dickens had ten children, who, on the whole, pleased him more as youngsters than they did as adults. The eldest was Charles (known as Charley), born 1837. Angela Burdett Coutts showed a great deal of interest in Charley, paying for his education at Eton and then for two years in Leipzig, in preparation for a career in merchant banking.
Early on his father had doubts about Charley's will to succeed, describing him, shortly after his seventeenth birthday, as very gentle and affectionate, but with ‘less fixed purpose and energy than he could have supposed possible in a child of mine’ (to Coutts, 14 January 1854). At 18 he entered Barings Bank, where he stayed for four years, during that time getting caught up in the separation of his parents in 1858 (see Dickens, Catherine).
With encouragement from Dickens he lived with his mother for a year, but then gave up Barings and went to Hong Kong to gain experience in the tea trade. In 1861 he returned to London and, aged just 24, set up in business for himself. That same year he married Bessie Evans, daughter of one of the Bradbury and Evans partners, but fierce disapproval of his son's father-in-law kept Dickens away from the wedding.
One year later Charley presented Dickens with his first grandchild, Mary Angela. After seven years his business failed; then a printing partnership with his brother-in-law also failed and Charley was made bankrupt. Dickens then hired him to help on All the Year Round and, Charley proving adept at this work, appointed his son sub-editor, and in his will left Charley his share of the business.
Charley took over as editor of All the Year Round after his father died, and continued for the next eighteen years. The magazine was, unsurprisingly, never as successful as it had been with his father's input, yet successful enough to stay in print until Charley decided, as sole owner, to end its publication in 1893.
He had success, too, with the production of a guidebook, Dickens's Dictionary of London, which he followed up with similar guides to Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, and the Thames. Following his father's death he bought Gad's Hill Place, to the annoyance of other members of the family, only to find that he had to resell it in 1879.
In 1887–8 he went to the United States, filling halls for readings from his father's books. There was interest, too, in articles he wrote about his father, and in his biographical and bibliographical introductions to a new edition of Dickens's works published by Macmillan (see editions published after Dickens's lifetime). At the age of 59, just one year older than his father, he died of a similar apoplectic attack. He left one son and seven daughters.
Dickens had three daughters, one of whom, Dora, died aged eight months. The others were Mary (Mamie), born 1838, and Katherine (Katey), born 1839. Of the two Katey was her father's favourite, nicknamed ‘Lucifer-Box’, yet she was the one most anxious to leave home, and she married the writer Charles Collins in 1860, said not to be a marriage made for love.
Dickens had three daughters, one of whom, Dora, died aged eight months. The others were Mary (Mamie), born 1838, and Katherine (Katey), born 1839. Of the two Katey was her father's favourite, nicknamed ‘Lucifer-Box’, yet she was the one most anxious to leave home, and she married the writer Charles Collins in 1860, said not to be a marriage made for love.
After a long illness Collins died in 1873 and she remarried the following year, to the artist Carlo Perugini. She achieved some success herself as a painter, and though she wrote a few articles giving insights into her father, most information was given in her frequent conversations with Gladys Storey (see Storey 1939).
She died in 1929. Mamie (‘Mild Gloster’) idolized her father and lived with him till his death in 1870. She never married, and with Georgina Hogarth shared the task of editing the first edition of her father's letters; she also wrote a book on him. She died in 1896, just three days after the death of her brother Charley.
Of the other children, Walter, born 1841, joined the army and went to India at the age of 16, where he died six years later. Francis (Frank), born 1844, was said by his sister Kate and brother Henry to be the cleverest and best of them. At the age of 20 he joined the Bengal Mounted Police, and stayed in India for six years, returning the year after his father's death. Over three years he speculated with and lost his inheritance, and was finally found a post with Canada's Northwest Mounted Police, with whom he served for twelve years.
Of the other children, Walter, born 1841, joined the army and went to India at the age of 16, where he died six years later. Francis (Frank), born 1844, was said by his sister Kate and brother Henry to be the cleverest and best of them. At the age of 20 he joined the Bengal Mounted Police, and stayed in India for six years, returning the year after his father's death. Over three years he speculated with and lost his inheritance, and was finally found a post with Canada's Northwest Mounted Police, with whom he served for twelve years.
He died in Moline, Illinois, in 1886. Alfred, born 1845, made a career for himself in Australia, leaving at the age of 20 and not returning for 45 years. When he did come back he found great success lecturing on his father's life and reciting from his books, so much so that he sought to repeat the success in America.
Unfortunately his health was poor, and after two months he collapsed and died in New York. He was married twice and had two children. Alfred was followed to Australia by his younger brother Edward, nicknamed Plorn, whom Dickens specially loved. Born in 1852, he was only 16 when he left England. He became a Member of Parliament in New South Wales and died there in 1902.
The seventh child, Sydney, born 1847, progressed at the early age of 13 into a navy cadetship. He did well in his career, but failed miserably at handling his finances, and continually turned to his father for support. Frustrated at this, Dickens's last letter to him forbade him to visit Gad's Hill on his next shore leave. His inheritance from his father helped clear his debts, but he died at sea two years later, aged only 25.
Henry was born in 1849, and went on to become the most successful of Dickens's sons. At Cambridge University he won a scholarship for Trinity Hall and studied law. In 1873 he was called to the bar, and he married in 1876. Of all Dickens's children Henry was the steadiest and achieved most—he took Silk in 1892, became Common Serjeant in 1917, sitting as judge at the Old Bailey, and was knighted in 1922.
He retired at the age of 80, in 1929. Henry was involved in the production of the first edition of his father's letters, he wrote his own books, and regularly performed readings from Dickens. In conversations with Gladys Storey in 1928 he was instrumental in confirming his father's relationship with Ellen Ternan. He died in 1933, victim of a road accident, and the last of Dickens's children.
MA
Bibliography
Adrian, Arthur A., Georgina Hogarth and the Dickens Circle (1957).
Bowen, W. H., Charles Dickens and His Family (1956).
Lazarus, Mary, A Tale of Two Brothers (1973).
Moss, Sidney P. and Moss, Carolyn J., Charles Dickens and his Chicago Relatives (1994).
Storey (1939).
How to cite this entry:
MA "children of Dickens" Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 18 August 2011
MA
Bibliography
Adrian, Arthur A., Georgina Hogarth and the Dickens Circle (1957).
Bowen, W. H., Charles Dickens and His Family (1956).
Lazarus, Mary, A Tale of Two Brothers (1973).
Moss, Sidney P. and Moss, Carolyn J., Charles Dickens and his Chicago Relatives (1994).
Storey (1939).
How to cite this entry:
MA "children of Dickens" Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 18 August 2011
