Edwin Murray Dickinson was born in Sheffield in 1849, the son of Edwin Dickinson (1825-1889) and his wife, Mary Ann.  The latter died from consumption in 1850, aged 20.  Edwin (a butcher in Fargate) emigrated to Australia.  Edwin Murray was raised by his grandparents, Peter and Mary Murray.  Peter was a Scottish-born travelling draper and tea dealer in Sheffield.  Dickinson worked for eleven years as an agent and manager for Alfred Field in Westfield Terrace.  In about 1882, he launched Murray Works, Cambridge Street, for the sale/manufacture of pen, pocket, and sportsman’s knives, Bowies and daggers, and trade knives for butchers and farriers.  In 1896, Dickinson re-located to 122/124 Rockingham Street, from where he registered a silver mark in 1900 and began marketing electro-plate goods. 

He adopted limited liability in 1901, with a share capital of £10,000, split between friends and family.  The directors were E.M. Dickinson, J. Dickson, A. Bernard Kaye, and Arnold James Robinson.  By 1910, the firm was in 203 Arundel Street.  Bernard Kaye died in October 1929, aged 61, and was buried in Abbey Lane Cemetery.  Edwin Dickinson died on 21 October 1930, aged 80, at Coppice Hospital in Nottingham.  He had worshipped at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and his burial in the General Cemetery was unconsecrated.  He left £228.  During the 1930s, Dickinson’s ceased trading.  Its marks – ‘INVICTA’, ‘EL DORADO’, ‘THE MURRAY’, ‘CAMBRIDGE & Co’, and a screw – were acquired by Needham, Veall & Tyzack.