Background
Dickson was born in Greencastle and grew up off the Donegall Road in Belfast, where he studied at Kelvin Secondary School.
Dickson was born in Greencastle and grew up off the Donegall Road in Belfast, where he studied at Kelvin Secondary School.
He was elected to Belfast City Council in 1977, and again stood for the party in Belfast West at the 1979 United Kingdom general election, taking third place with 11.2% of the vote. He was able to hold his council seat in 1981. Dickson was selected as a candidate for Belfast West at the Northern Ireland Assembly election, 1982.
Although Dickson was re-elected at the 1985 local election, and served as Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1986, he then left the Democratic Unionist Party and stood as an independent Unionist in 1989 local election, losing his seat.
He subsequently joined the Conservatives in Northern Ireland, but again missed election when he stood for them in 1993. He served as a Royal Ulster Constabulary Reservist, and from 2007 had a weekly column in the South Belfast Community Telegraph.
Outside politics, Dickson long worked at the Ulster Museum, but later became a tour guide, specialising in the history of Belfast and the Ulster Covenant. Dickson later joined Traditional Unionist Voice, and at the Northern Ireland local elections, 2014, he stood unsuccessfully for the party in Botanic.
Six weeks before the election, he was shot at his home by members of the Irish National Liberation Army.