Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (13 March 1852 – 23 January 1902) was the youngest son of English novel

English novel

The English novel is an important part of English literature.-Early novels in English:A number of works of literature have each been claimed as the first novel in English. See the article First novel in English.-Romantic novel:...

ist Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 and his wife Catherine

Catherine Dickens

Catherine 'Kate' Thomson Dickens was the wife of English novelist Charles Dickens, with whom he fathered 10 children.-Marriage:...

 and was an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n politician.

Edward 'Plorn' Dickens was clearly named after Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...

 — nowadays much satirised for the famous opening line of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford

Paul Clifford

Paul Clifford is a novel published in 1830 by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It tells the life of Paul Clifford, a man who leads a dual life as both a criminal and an upscale gentleman...

, "It was a dark and stormy night

It was a dark and stormy night

"It was a dark and stormy night" is an infamous phrase written by Victorian novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton at the beginning of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest uses the phrase as a signifier of purple prose...

" — and educated at Tunbridge Wells in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 at a private school owned by the Reverend W. C Sawyer, later Anglican

Anglican Church of Australia

The Anglican Church of Australia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. It was previously officially known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania...

 bishop of Armidale

Anglican Diocese of Armidale

The Anglican Diocese of Armidale is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia, located in the state of New South Wales. The diocese was created in 1914 as a result of a division of the previous Diocese of Grafton and Armidale which was created by letters patent in 1863...

 and Grafton

Anglican Diocese of Grafton

The Anglican Diocese of Grafton is one of the twenty-three dioceses of the Anglican Church of Australia. It is located in north-east New South Wales and covers the area from the Queensland border to Port Macquarie in the south and west to the Great Dividing Range.Created in 1914 as a result of a...

. He also attended lectures at the Royal Agricultural College

Royal Agricultural College

The Royal Agricultural College is a higher education institution located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English speaking world...

 in Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

.

Charles Dickens encouraged Edward, along with his elder brother Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens

Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens

Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens was the sixth child and fourth son of British novelist Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine...

, to migrate to Australia, which he saw as a land of opportunity. Alfred migrated in 1865 and Edward in 1869. Edward Dickens settled at Wilcannia, New South Wales

Wilcannia, New South Wales

Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. This was the third largest inland port in the country during the great river boat era of the mid-19th century. At the 2006 census, Wilcannia had a population of 596.- Geography...

 where he became manager of Momba station. He married Constance Desailly, the daughter of a local property-owner, in 1880. He opened a stock and station agency, was elected as an alderman of Bourke Shire Council

Bourke Shire Council

Bourke Council is a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. It is on the Darling River, which is known as the Barwon River upstream from Bourke. It is also on the Mitchell Highway...

 and bought a share in Yanda station near Bourke

Bourke, New South Wales

-Transportation:Bourke can be reached by the Mitchell Highway, with additional sealed roads from town to the north , east and south . The town is also served by Bourke Airport and has Countrylink bus service to other regional centres, like Dubbo...

. He lost heavily from bad seasons and in 1886 he was appointed government inspector of runs in the Bourke District. He was never able to pay back a loan of ₤800 from his most successful brother, Henry

Henry Fielding Dickens

Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, KC was the eighth of ten children born to British author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The most successful of all of Dickens's children, he was a barrister, a KC and Common Serjeant of London, a senior legal office which he held for over 15 years.-Early...

.

Dickens was elected as the member for Wilcannia

Electoral district of Wilcannia

Wilcannia was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales from 1889 to 1904. The electorate included Wilcannia. Its first member was the son of Charles Dickens.-Members for Wilcannia:...

 in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

New South Wales Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The other chamber is the Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House in the state capital, Sydney...

 in 1889 and held the seat until defeated by the Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

 candidate, Richard Sleath

Richard Sleath

Richard Sleath was an Australian politician.Born in Cerres in Fifeshire to ploughman Richard Sleath and Mary Fernie, he migrated to Queensland in 1877, becoming a shearer and prospector. In 1882 he moved to Sydney, working as a contractor before mining at Broken Hill from 1887. On 11 March 1887 he...

 in 1894. Dickens then became a rabbit inspector for the Government of New South Wales

Government of New South Wales

The form of the Government of New South Wales is prescribed in its Constitution, which dates from 1856, although it has been amended many times since then...

 and was afterwards an officer for the Lands Department in charge of the Moree

Moree, New South Wales

Moree is a large town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River in the centre of the rich black-soil plains....

district. He subsequently had difficulty finding employment and died after several months' illness in Moree, in debt and childless. He was buried in Moree cemetery.