Toc H

[a Dickson gran'chile]

You canny man you 

[fishweb]

Hi I found this reference to him on the London Gazette
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/exact=john+dunbar+dickson/start=1


Cathy

[a Dickson gran'chile]

thank you Cathy.

what does it mean?

that he struck out on his own?

[fishweb]

thank you Cathy.

what does it mean?

that he struck out on his own?

I am not sure but by further googling he appears in the British Medical Journal August 16th 1890 where he was elected as president for the Reading and Upper Thames Branch and it goes on to say he had recently visited a Leper Hospital in Norway.
http://www.bmj.com/content/2/1546/local/admin.pdf


Cathy

[a Dickson gran'chile]

my pa's preoccupation with all things doctorly makes so much sense now.  it was inbred.  he simply couldn't help it!

sadly, it has made me totally afeared of medics and their needles!

no chip off the old block am i 

[Moonbrand]

Although much diminished, Toc H still exists today though its heyday was in the middle part of the 20th century. A community movement and charity it was made up of hundreds of branches around the UK and the Dominion. On earning branch status a Toc H unit would be issued a lamp. These lamps had to be bought so were often bought in memory of a loved one. In the early days (Toc H started in the UK in 1919) the lamps were often bought in memory of sons lost in WWI. Later they would be bought in memorial of other events too and slowly the practice died out.

As you have probably seem the memorial was on a plate attached to the storage box rather than the lamp. The lamps were made by Whipple the church furnishers and are fairly indistinguishable from each other. Other plates might also note who made the donation and when the lamp was lit for the first time (usually at a special lamplighting festival held each December at the Guild Hall or Royal Albert Hall)

If anyone requires any further information please contact me. By the way, lamps were issued to branches as a badge of status and strictly speaking belong to Toc H!

All the best

[Moonbrand]

Sorry, just re-read your post and realise you have a book, not the original lamp. I'll try and find out if the Dickson lamp is in the Toc H archives

[a Dickson gran'chile]

Sorry, just re-read your post and realise you have a book, not the original lamp. I'll try and find out if the Dickson lamp is in the Toc H archives

thank you Moonbrand

[a Dickson gran'chile]

Last night I read the letters that my great uncle David sent home, the letters of condolence and tributes.   

What a brave young boy.  I had not appreciated how very young he was until I found these photos this morning.



....with his mother, Emily.



....and with his father, the 'beloved physician' John.

previously I had only known him from his portrait



In his last letter, his main concern was that his parents should not worry, and that they should remember to 'pay Timberlake 18d'.

Timberlake had made some minor repairs to his bike.  That this service should be paid for was his last wish.  He was 17.