John Faulkner Dickinson was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, on the 28th February 1874, the third son of Robert and Harriet Dickinson (née Hill). His father was a clothier and pawnbroker, and John was one of ten children in the family.
On completing his education, John first became a telegraph messenger, before finding employment in a grocery store.
On the 5th August 1900, he married Susan Child in Liverpool and they lived at 15, Netherby Street, Liverpool, Lancashire. At this time, he listed his occupation as being a grocer. The couple had one child, a son named John Walter, who was born in 1907.
Sometime after his marriage, he turned his attention towards the sea and enlisted as a steward in the British Mercantile Marine. He engaged as a third class waiter in the Stewards' Department on board the Lusitania on the 12th April 1915, at a monthly rate of £4-5s.-0d. (£4.25p.) and reported for duty on the morning of the 17th, before the Cunarder left Liverpool for the last time.
He was killed three weeks later when the liner was sunk and as his body was never recovered from the sea and subsequently identified, he is commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial to the Missing, at Tower Hill, London. He was aged 41 years.
The Liverpool and London War Risks Insurance Association Limited granted a yearly pension to Susan Dickinson to compensate her for the loss of her husband which amounted to £33-17s.-7d. (£33.88½p.) which was payable at the rate of £2-16s.-6d. (£2.82½p.) per month.
His wife never re-married and later she moved to Manchester with her son. Susan Dickinson died in 1962.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Liverpool England Church of England Baptisms 1813 – 1919, Liverpool England Church of England Marriages and Banns 1754 – 1935, 1881 Census of England, 1891 Census of England, 1901 Census of England, 1911 Census of England, 1921 Census of England, Cunard Records, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, UK Campaign Medals Awarded to World War I Merchant Seamen 1914 – 1925, Liverpool Echo, PRO BT 334, PRO BT 351/1/35857, UniLiv. PR 13/24, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.
Revised & Updated –25th February 2023.