Background
Dickson was born in Dungannon on 19 April 1859 and educated at the Royal School there.
Dickson was born in Dungannon on 19 April 1859 and educated at the Royal School there.
He held the record for the youngest person elected to the House of Commons from the Great Reform Acting of 1832 until the election of Mhairi Black in 2015. Dickson was elected to the House of Commons at a by-election on 25 June 1880. At the general election earlier in 1880 Dungannon had been held with a majority of 2 by the sitting Liberal Member of Parliament, James Dickson"s father Thomas Alexander Dickson, but the result had been declared void on petition because of bribery by the candidate"s agent.
A fresh election was called.
James Dickson thus doubled his father"s majority. He became the youngest person elected to the House of Commons since the Great Reform Acting of 1832, being aged 21 years 67 days.
His father re-entered Parliament in his own right at the next election. He held the seat until the Dungannon constituency was abolished at the 1885 general election.
After leaving politics, Dickson continued his career by joining the family textile business, retiring after the First World War.
Foreign many years he was the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Royal School, Chairman of the Technical School Committee, and Chairman of the Tuberculosis Sanatorium Committee. In 1918 he was appointed a Doctor of Laws for County Tyrone. James Dickson died at Weeke, Winchester, on 8 August 1941, aged 82.
22nd United Kingdom Parliament]
He was Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for the borough of Dungannon from 1880 to 1885.
