DICKER, CHARLES (1855-1912)

"Gum Leaves, Tasmania" (c.1890)
watercolour & bodycolour
cm
unsigned
*private collection, Sydney
 
Charles William Hamilton Dicker is a forgotten Tasmania-based English Pastor & Colonial Botanist. The son of the Rev. Hamilton Dicker (cousin of architect George Bodley), Charles was ordained in 1881. After a year at Holy Trinity, Winchester, he was selected for the Minor Canonry of St. David's Cathedral, Hobart, Tasmania. In this extensive parish in Hamilton, fifty miles across, he laboured devotedly for eight years. He had a number of different churches to serve, & this involved incessant riding & driving over rough country. He met with several serious accidents, as he was quite fearless. While Rector of Hamilton he married a Tasmanian lady, but her early death, leaving him with an infant son, led to his return to England in 1897. Although his work was in Tasmania, he visited other parts of Australia during his time there, with drawings completed in Victoria, NSW & QLD. After his return to England, he spent six years, at Portslade, Norwood, then Dorset, where he spent the rest of his life, once more happily engaged in pursuing his interests in architecture, botany, archaeology & photography. He produced a book illustrated with his own drawings, entitled The Naturalist in Australia in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History & Antiquarian Field Club, where he was Vice-President. He died suddenly in a motorcycle accident at 56 - which he had just bought - skidding on a wet road under the wheel of a steam lorry. His obituary read "a man of unusual accomplishments & versatility of talents. He seemed equally at home in the study & in the field; &, if his stature was slight & his form spare, his spirit was ever robust & adventurous. draughtsman, his beautiful drawings, whether landscapes, of plant life, or of architectural detail, were a delight to his friends & evoked much admiration. His love of flowers was marked, and he was a good botanist. While in southern latitudes he turned to good account his opportunities for studying Australasian flora and fauna, collecting and drawing assiduously."