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) cost was £8,300 and like "Valkyrie II", "Britannia" was built at the D&W Henderson shipyard in Patrick on the River Clyde. With two such highly important commissions underway in the same yard, Watson delegated his protégé James Rennie Barnett to oversee both yachts. "Britannia" was launched on 20 April 1893, a week ahead of "Valkyrie II" and joined a fleet of first class cutters that was growing fast as others followed the royal lead. In a highly competitive fleet, "Britannia" soon set about achieving the race results which would eventually establish her as the most successful racing yacht of all