Ku qor sii wadida cutubkan - Francis Howard Bickerton wuxuu ku dhashay Iffley, Oxfordshire, 15kii Janaayo 1889, oo ah wiilka Joseph Jones Bickerton (1839<unk>1894), oo ah xildhibaan xor ah iyo xafiiska magaalada Oxford, iyo xaaskiisa labaad Eliza Frances Fox (1849<unk>1896). Ka dib dhimashadii hore ee labada waalid, Bickerton iyo walaashiis, Dorothea, waxay noqdeen kuwa ilaaliya adeerkood hooyo, dhakhtarka neerfaha Dr Edward Lawrence Fox (1859<unk>1938), oo ku noolaa 9 Osborne Place ee Plymouth, Devon. Bickerton wuxuu waxbarashadiisii hore ka qaatay Joseph John Cross oo ku yaal Newton Abbot Hall ka hor inta uusan u dhaqaaqin Marlborough College, halkaas oo uu galay 1901 ilaa 1904. Sanadkii 1906 wuxuu iska qoray City & Guilds (Technical) College ee London halkaas oo uu ka mid noqday ardaydii ugu horreysay ee jaamacadda ee barta injineernimada duulista. Ma jiro wax diiwaan ah oo Bickerton uu waligiis si rasmi ah u qalinjabiyay, laakiin qiyaastii 1910 wuxuu shaqo u aaday mid ka mid ah birta birta ah ee Bedford iyo, isagoo deggan magaaladaas, wuxuu la kulmay oo saaxiibo la noqday sahamiyaha Antarctic Aeneas Mackintosh (halyeey ka tirsan Shackleton's "Nimrod" Safarka
) waxaa Bishii Maarso 1911 labadii nin waxay u baxeen raadinta khasnadaha Jasiiradda Cocos laakiin waxay ku noqdeen gacmo madhan saddex bilood ka dib.