Whakakihia te rerenga e whai ake nei: I whanau a Francis Howard Bickerton i Iffley, Oxfordshire, i te 15 o Hanuere 1889, ko te tama a Joseph Jones Bickerton (1839<unk>1894), kaunihera liberal me te kaitohutohu taone o Oxford, me tana wahine tuarua a Eliza Frances Fox (1849<unk>1896). Whai muri i te matenga wawe o nga maatua e rua, ka noho a Bickerton me tana tuahine, a Dorothea, ki nga kaitiaki o ta raua matua keke, te tohunga neurologist Dr Edward Lawrence Fox (1859<unk>1938), e noho ana i te 9 Osborne Place i Plymouth, Devon. I whiwhi a Bickerton i tana kura tuatahi mai i a Joseph John Cross i Newton Abbot Hall i mua i tana neke atu ki te Kareti o Marlborough, i reira ia i eke mai i te 1901 ki te 1904. I te tau 1906 i uru ia ki te Whare Wananga o te Taone me te Guilds ( Hangarau) o Ranana i reira ia tetahi o nga akonga tuatahi o te kaareti ki te ako i te hangarau rererangi. Kaore he rekoata o Bickerton kua oti i a ia te tohu, engari i te 1910 ka haere ia ki te mahi i roto i tetahi o nga whare whakarewa rino i Bedford, ana, i a ia e noho ana i taua taone, ka tutaki ia ka noho hoa ki te kairangahau Antarctic a Aeneas Mackintosh (he toa o te haerenga a Shackleton
"Nimirota" He haerenga). I te Poutu-te-rangi 1911, ka haere nga tangata tokorua ki te rapu taonga ki te Motu o Cocos, engari i hoki mai me nga ringaringa kau e toru marama i muri mai.