Gerald Charles Dickens Gerald Charles Dickens Admiral Sir Gerald Louis Charles Dickens (13 October 1879 – 19 November 1962) was a senior Royal Navy officer and the grandson of Victorian novelist Charles Dickens. Born in Kensington, London, the son of Sir Henry Fielding Dickens, Dickens joined the naval college HMS "Britannia" at Dartmouth in Devon in 1894 as a Naval Cadet, following preparatory education at Stubbington House School. Dickens served on with the Channel Fleet, 1896–1897, and in the East Indies Station, 1897–1899. He was promoted Sub-Lieutenant in 1899, and in that year he served aboard before transferring to the Royal Naval College,
Midshipman longer the case that those joining the Navy as university graduates start as sub-lieutenants, with non-graduates joining as midshipmen. Graduates and non-graduates all start as midshipmen, and wait to be promoted at the same time. General basic training (initial officer training) for Royal Navy officers takes place at the Britannia Royal Naval College. Training takes up to a year depending on specialisation; all midshipmen participate in at least the first two terms, which are 14 weeks each. Until they have completed initial fleet training, both midshipmen and sub-lieutenants at Britannia Royal Naval College do not use their substantive ranks, but