Frederick Dickins

Frederick Victor Dickins (1838 to 1915) was a British naval surgeon who went on to a second career as a barrister, orientalist and university administrator. Born in Paddington, London, he first went to Japan in 1863 as a medical officer on HMS Coromandel and spent three years in charge of the medical facilities at Yokohama, where he met Japanese doctors and began a lifelong friendship with Ernest Satow. He left naval service, was called to the bar and returned to Japan in 1871 to build a legal practice, and in the meantime collected ferns for Kew. Back in England from 1879 he devoted himself to Japanese studies and to administration at the University of London, and he is now remembered chiefly as a translator of Japanese literature.