The Don Dickinson Award for Best Newsletter Article

The Don Dickinson award is open to anyone in the Wessex D.A. It is awarded annually to the author of the best newsletter article. The award is made at the Wessex DA AGM. The winner keeps the award for a year and has his/her name engraved upon it at DA expense. The DA secretary is responsible for the award being made. The DA secretary can enlist whatever help he/she sees fit in determining the winner.

Don Dickinson lived in Salisbury most of his life. Before WWII he was the editor of "A Wheel in Wessex", the newsletter of the now Salisbury section. The current Salisbury secretary has Don's complete set of newsletters. Don was a life member of the CTC and his solid silver badge, with his name engraved upon the back, adorns the award. In his retirement he used his bicycle to deliver the Salisbury section newsletter far and wide. He used to cycle on his birthday as many miles as he was old. During the war he was the chief pharmacist at the Salisbury hospital, and because of wartime shortages, he learnt to write with gentian violet instead of ink, and leave no margins. He kept this habit for the rest of his life, which meant filing letters from him couldn't be done by punching holes for a ring binder without losing some of his words! During WWII the Salisbury hospital moved from the centre of town to the now lost cellars under La Retraite School, and then out to Heale House. His phamacy in the cellars of La Retraite School enabled him to claim to have spent a night in a convent! Don wrote extensive diaries, a page for each day. During lunchtimes he used to sit besides the railway writing his diary and watching the German aircraft fly over Salisbury, getting their bearings from the cathedral.

Mr D. S. Dickinson J. P. left a great deal of knowledge and many stories with the Salisbury section such as the narrow guage railway up Castle Street, the Quaker graves near Tollard Royal, the wooden bombs dropped on the dummy aircraft and much more. Don died on Friday 2nd January 1981 in his mid seventies. He served on the committee of the Wessex DA from 1948 to 1951, as president from 1952 to 1954 and again as vice president from 1955 to 1974. He served as Salisbury (then the Northern) section secretary from 1939 until 1947 and was CTC County registrar for Wiltshire from 1964 until 1979. In 1944 he was elected to the Salisbury Road Safety Committee. This he served on for 35 years. He was very much involved in the legal fight which gained the right for cyclists to ride along Town Path, from Salisbury to Harnham.

This award was seen as a fitting way for cyclists to remember the achievements of Don.

Don Dickinson Award

List of winners

Click here to go back to Salisbury Home Page