Portrait of a Partnership

This book, the last of many written by Mora Dickson, beautifully chronicles her life with Alec Dickson, CBE, founder of Voluntary Service Overseas, the organization upon which John F. Kennedy modeled the US Peace Corps, and Community Service Volunteers, through which thousands upon thousands of young British have served at home and abroad.

Portrait of a Partnership recounts the life of Alec Dickson, CBE, and that of Mora Dickson, from their separate growing-up years in England and Scotland through their meeting in London during World War II, the events of the war that shaped their lives, their marriage, and their initial work in Nigeria in the 1950s that led to the creation of VSO. It documents the pain of the 'palace coup' which removed Alec Dickson as director of VSO just as he was in Washington advising President Kennedy, the despair that followed, and then the founding of CSV.

An artist by profession, Mora Dickson s book is illustrated throughout with her pen and ink drawings.

Mora Dickson was born and brought up in Scotland where her home was in Moffat. She first studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art. Five years of war service intervened before she returned to painting in 1945, studying at the Byam Shaw School in London. Whilst there she met Alec Dickson whom she married in 1951. Alec Dickson became known for his work in establishing Voluntary Service Overseas adn Mora played an invaluable part in the setting up of this charity.