Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens

Nicknamed "Sampson Brass" and "Skittles" by his father, Alfred Dickens was born at 1 Devonshire Terrace, near Regent's Park, and was baptized at the church of St. Mary Marylebone in London on 21 April 1846. He was named after his godfathers, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Alfred, Comte d'Orsay. Because of this choice of godfathers Alfred's christening became a popular topic among literary people. Father Prout wrote: Edward Fitzgerald wrote to his friend Edward Barton that Tennyson and Count D'Orsay had stood as godparents to one of Dickens's children, and that the unfortunate child had been named 'Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson', which he believed proved that 'Dickens was a snob ... For what is Snobbishness and Cockneyism, but all such pretensions and parade? It is one thing to worship heroes and another to lick their spittle.' Robert Browning wrote to Elizabeth Barrett, who shortly after married him in the same church in which Alfred Dickens had been baptized, wondering if she knew why Alfred Tennyson has been dining with Dickens to meet celebrities.

Dickens settled in Australia quickly, becoming manager of Corona station on the border of New South Wales and South Australia. He remained in Australia for 45 years. Charles Dickens having died in 1870, Alfred purchased Wangagong station, near Forbes with his share of his father's estate. In 1874 he moved to Hamilton, Victoria, to take up a position as a station agent. Dickens married Augusta Jessie Devlin (1849–1878), known as 'The Belle of Melbourne", in a fashionable wedding in Toorak, Victoria, with whom he had two daughters, Kathleen Mary (1874 – 1951) and Violet Georgina (1875 – 1952). Jessie Dickens died from her injuries on 14 December 1878 after having been thrown out of her carriage when a pony bolted. Alfred Dickens then moved to Melbourne, where he was persuaded by his younger brother Edward Dickens to start up their own stock and station agency, 'EBL Dickens and Partners'.

In Melbourne on 22 June 1888, Dickens married again, his new wife, Emily Riley (1863–1913), being 17 years his junior. The marriage was not a happy one, and there were no children. Severely hit financially when depression hit Victoria in the early 1890s, Alfred began to tour Australia giving lectures about his father's life and work. From 1910 he gave the lectures in Europe and America, in that year returning to Great Britain for the first time since 1865. He became the Vice President of the Dickens Fellowship. While touring America in 1912 as a guest of honour during the Dickens Centennial celebrations, Dickens was taken ill at noon while strolling in the lobby of his hotel, the Astor Hotel in New York City. Taking to his bed, he slept for a while and then awoke and dictated a letter to one of his daughters in Australia explaining that his sudden illness had required him to cancel one of his speaking engagements. He died at 5:15 p.m. in his suite at the Astor Hotel, reportedly of acute indigestion after a few hours illness.