Selwyn Ray DICKSON

Selwyn Dickson was born on 6 April 1891 in Beechworth, Victoria. His parents were William and Jane Cathcart Lamont (née Walker) Dickson. He attended Scotch from 1907 to 1909. He won a Government Exhibition in 1907 (see photograph below). He also gained 3rd place in the Shakespeare Society’s examination. In 1908 he won the Alexander Morrison Memorial Medal for the best essay on the subject of ‘Australian fiction’. He was in Cadets for a year. He won a scholarship to Ormond College, and did very well in his law studies at the University of Melbourne.

Selwyn was a solicitor before he enlisted on 15 November 1915 and re-enlisted on 15 February 1917 in Melbourne, Victoria. He served in the 21st Battalion with the rank of Lieutenant. His Regimental Number was 1088.

Selwyn died on 1 September 1918 at Mont St Quentin, France. He was 27 years of age.

Service record

Selwyn Dickson enlisted twice. The first time was in 1915, a year after being accepted as a barrister and solicitor. He was allotted as a Private to a Depot at Ballarat, then to Broadmeadows as a Lance Corporal, to Seymour with reinforcements for the 22nd Battalion and then in April 1916 to Duntroon for officer training. In August 1916 he was appointed 2nd Lieutenant, but he fell ill and his appointment was terminated in October 1916. Selwyn re-enlisted in February 1917 as a Sergeant at the Recruit Depot at Royal Park. He was recommissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant on 5 April 1917 and transferred to Seymour. He joined the 20th Reinforcements to the 21st Battalion and embarked with them at Melbourne on 21 November 1917.

He travelled via Egypt to England, reaching Southampton on 24 January 1918. He reportedly performed very well at an officers’ school. Once again, though, ill-health would dog his service, and on 19 or 20 April 1918 he was hospitalised with appendicitis. It was operated on that day, for ‘it was in a nasty condition just on the point of rupturing and full of pus.’ Not until 9 July would he be well enough to proceed overseas to join his unit. On 14 July he finally reached the 21st Battalion. On 20 August he was promoted to full Lieutenant, but he had less than two weeks to live.

He was killed in action on 1 September 1918 near Mont St Quentin and Peronne. Lieutenant-Colonel Duggan, Commanding Officer of the 21st Battalion, wrote that Selwyn was killed instantly by a shell burst in his trench. The most detailed entry in Selwyn’s Red Cross Wounded and Missing file is from a Corporal Harry Stiff, a member of the 6th Trench Mortar Battery, who met him for the first time on the day of Selwyn’s death (see below). Soon after telling Stiff where to locate his mortar, Dickson had moved off some 20 to 30 yards. Stiff saw a shell fall in that location afterwards, and heard that Selwyn had been ‘killed outright’ by the explosion. Lieutenant-Colonel Duggan described Selwyn as ‘an Officer of exceptional type and promise, with great capabilities in handling men.’

Selwyn Dickson is buried in the Peronne Communal Cemetery Extension (Plot V, Row G, Grave No. 1), France.

Photographs and Documents:

Selwyn is pictured here among the Scholarship and Exhibition winners of 1908.

Selwyn Dickson is at far left in the back row of this photograph of the editorial staff of The Scotch Collegian in 1908. It includes many of the same boys as in the Scholarship photo. Arthur Deans was killed in 1917. Clive Steele, standing next to him, would be decorated for bravery in the First World War, and become the senior Australian army engineer in the Second World War. Herbert Brownell would become a Major and earn a DSO. Ashley Vines would lose an eye at Gallipoli. John Mathew would also serve on Gallipoli.

Corporal Stiff’s testimony concerning Selwyn’s death

Sources:

1. Australian War Memorial – Roll of Honour and Red Cross Wounded and Missing file
2. Mishura Scotch Database
3. National Archives of Australia – B2455, DICKSON SELWYN RAY
4. Scotch Collegian 1918
5. The AIF Project - https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=79034