Lieutenant-Colonel Jimmy Dickson
2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment

In the rescuing of the child and bringing ashore of Sgt Chamberlain, Brigadier Dickson displayed courage of the highest order which was an example to all. Especially is this so in the second attempt when in spite of his exhausted state and his injuries he was immediately prepared to risk his life—and knew it was a very grave risk—to try single-handed to save a drowning man.

(George Medal citation, 12 Oct 1960)

Born on 11 August 1911 in British India, Norman James Dickson was commissioned with the Northamptonshire Regiment in 1931 after attending the King’s School and Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He served on the North West frontier in India and was promoted to captain in September 1939. He completed staff college and served as brigade major and then participated in the planning for D-Day with general headquarters, 21st Army Group.  

During the Normandy campaign, Dickson was appointed commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment after Lieutenant-Colonel C.F. Hutchinson became a casualty. He was promoted to lieutenant-colonel the next month. On 12 August 1944, an enemy shell exploded near a battalion orders group, forcing Dickson’s evacuation but he returned four days later. For his “prompt and gallant action” in the fighting on 12 October, he earned the Distinguished Service Order. When a company’s officers all became casualties, Dickson “again unhesitatingly went fwd … and stayed encouraging his men until the fresh tps had gone through.” The citation, however, pointed to the heavy toll of frontline leadership:

Some weeks previously Lt Col Dickson had been badly shaken by a near miss from a hy calibre enemy shell and had only recently returned to duty though still suffering from severe headaches. There is no doubt that he was not a fit man when the attack was launched by he in no way allowed this to interfere with his actions and in assessing his gallantry this fact should undoubtedly be borne in mind. Throughout a gruelling day Lt Col Dickson set a fine example to his men and was in such a state of exhaustion at the end of it that he had to be evacuated on the orders of his Bde Comd.

Second-in-command Major J.D.W. Rension took over the 2nd East Yorks on 16 October 1944.

Dickson remained in the postwar army and commanded the 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment in Korea and Hong Kong before a promotion to brigadier in 1956. His bravery was not confined to the battlefield, and in 1960, he received the George Medal, the second-highest civilian gallantry award in the British honors system.

On 22 July 1960, while on vacation on a beach in Malta, Dickson awoke to the panic of a mother whose nine-year-old girl had been swept out to sea. Despite large, rough waves and jagged rocks, the brigadier rushed into the ocean and saved the drowning girl. Although badly cut up, with a dislocated figure and toe, Dickson dove into the violent sea again to save a drowning RAF sergeant, one of several others who had attempted to rescue the girl. With much difficulty, Dickson brought the unconscious sergeant ashore and tried to revive him but the man was pronounced in hospital.

Dickson retired from the army 1962 and died on 18 January 1992 in Holm Oak, Oxford.