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Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (28 October 1845 – 2 January 1912) was an English lecturer. The sixth child and fourth son of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine, [1] Dickens made lecture tours in Australia, Europe, and the United States on his father's life and work.
Dickens was so convinced of the redeeming qualities of antipodean emigration that he sent two of his sons, Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens and Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, to settle in Australia. Both, in their father’s opinion, lacked application and staying power, which would be remedied by a colonial experience.
- State Library of New South Wales
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens (28 October 1845 – 2 January 1912) was an English lecturer. The sixth child and fourth son of English novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine, Dickens made lecture tours in Australia, Europe, and the United States on his father's life and work.
- Charles Dickens, Jr. (6 January 1837 – July 20, 1896) The complete name of Dickens' eldest child was Charles Culliford Boz Dickens, his middle name alluding to the author's pen name.
- Mary 'Mamie' Angela Dickens. 6 March 1838 – 23 July 1896) Mamie Dickens was the eldest daughter of the novelist. When her parents separated she lived with her father and did not see or speak to her mother again until after the death of Charles Dickens.
- Catherine Elizabeth Macready Dickens. (29 October 1839 – 9 May 1929) Catherine, the third oldest child and youngest daughter, was known as Katey to her family but later used the name Kate Perugini, adopting her second husband's surname.
- Walter Savage Landor Dickens. (8 February 1841 – 31 December 1863) The fourth child of Charles and Catherine Dickens was named after Dickens' friend, the author Walter Savage Landor.
Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens, the son of Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth Dickens, was born on 28th October, 1845. It was a difficult birth but she eventually recovered. He was named after the poet, Alfred Tennyson.
In late 1845, Dickens was ‘greatly delighted when Alfred travelled two hundred miles to be present at the famous performance of Everyman in His Humour by “Boz’s” amateur company at the St. James’s Theatre, and in the spring the poet, with Count D’Orsay, acted as godfather to [Dickens’s] fourth son, portentously christened ...
His fourth son, twenty-year-old Alfred D’Orsay Tennyson Dickens, migrated to Australia in 1865; followed by his tenth and youngest child, sixteen-year-old Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens in 1869. Dr Lansbury sharply observes, “a country where mediocrity would rise triumphant was the ideal place to send two of his more unpromising sons”.
