Born on 7th February 1812 at a house in Mile End Terrace, Portsmouth, Hampshire. His father, John Dickens, worked as a clerk in the pay office of the Royal Dockyard. Family moved to London in 1815 when John was posted there.
Father posted first to Sheerness, then to Chatham Royal Dockyard, Kent. Pleasant, formative boyhood years for Charles. His experiences in Chatham and neighbouring Rochester inspired much of his adult work.
His schooling interrupted when he followed the family to London, his father having been recalled there. Put to work in late 1823 at a blacking factory, and his father imprisoned for debt in early 1824: these humiliations provided a mainspring for his subsequent ambition.. Left factory in 1823/4, for his final two years of schooling.
The Dickens Fellowship acknowledges permission from the Charles Dickens Museum to use many images from its library on this website