Dickens was clearly named after Edward Bulwer-Lytton—nowadays much satirised for the famous opening line of his 1830 novel Paul Clifford, "It was a dark and stormy night"—and educated at Tunbridge Wells in Kent at a private school owned by the Reverend W. C Sawyer, later Anglican bishop of Armidale and Grafton. He also attended lectures at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Charles Dickens encouraged Edward Dickens along with his elder brother Alfred d'Orsay Tennyson Dickens 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 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 and bought a share in Yanda station near Bourke. 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.

Dickens was elected as the member for Wilcannia in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1889 and held the seat until defeated by the Labor Party candidate, Richard Sleath in 1894. He subsequently had difficulty finding employment and died in Moree in debt and childless. He was buried in Moree cemetery.

Notes