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,
HMY Britannia (Royal Cutter Yacht) 1879, and the 216-ton schooner "Aline" (Benjamin Nicholson, 1860) in 1881. "Britannia" faced many opponents in her 43-year career. The most notable were: HMY Britannia (Royal Cutter Yacht) His Majesty's Yacht "Britannia" was a gaff-rigged cutter built in 1893 for RYS Commodore Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, who later became King Edward VII. She served both himself and his son King George V, with a long racing career. "Britannia" was ordered in 1892 by Edward, Prince of Wales and designed by George Lennox Watson. She was a near sister ship to the Watson-designed which challenged for the 1893 America's Cup.