Violet Dickens

(b. Aguilas, Spain, 22/11/1878 – d. Cuckfield, West Sussex, **/**/1968). Actress. The British Census of 1901 lists just one Violet Dickins of approximately the right age who was a professional actress. She was born Violette Maud Blanche Dickins in Aguilas, Spain where her father was an agent for a British company involved in exporting esparto fibre. By 1901 she lived in Staffordshire and had appeared in a number of plays in Wolverhampton, amongst them A Bunch of Keys, written by Charles Hoyt. She is possibly the actress who, as Violet Dickens, came to South Africa and acted in four films for African Film Productions, all in 1916: The Silver Wolf (Lorimer Johnston), A Kract Affair (B.F. Clinton), £20,000 (B.F. Clinton) and De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw). Little else is known about her. She had married Frederick Arnold Lomas in 1903 and died at the age of 89 in Cuckfield, West Sussex. (FO)