Rubuta ci gaba don wannan sakin layi - An haifi Francis Howard Bickerton a Iffley, Oxfordshire, a ranar 15 ga Janairu 1889, ɗan Joseph Jones Bickerton (1839<unk>1894), ɗan majalisa mai sassaucin ra'ayi da kuma ma'aikacin gari na Oxford, da matarsa ta biyu Eliza Frances Fox (1849<unk>1896). Bayan mutuwar iyayensu da wuri, Bickerton da 'yar uwarsa, Dorothea, sun zama masu kula da kawunsu na mahaifiyarsu, masanin ilimin jijiyoyin jiki Dr Edward Lawrence Fox (1859<unk>1938), suna zaune a 9 Osborne Place a Plymouth, Devon. Bickerton ya sami karatunsa na farko daga Joseph John Cross a Newton Abbot Hall kafin ya koma Kwalejin Marlborough, inda ya shiga daga 1901 zuwa 1904. A cikin 1906 ya yi rajista a Kwalejin City & Guilds (Fasaha) ta London inda ya zama ɗayan ɗaliban kwalejin na farko don yin karatun injiniyan jirgin sama. Babu wani rikodin Bickerton da ya taɓa samun digiri a hukumance, amma a kusa da 1910 ya tafi aiki a ɗayan masana'antar ƙarfe a Bedford kuma, yayin da yake zaune a wannan garin, ya sadu kuma ya zama abokai tare da mai binciken Antarctic Aeneas Mackintosh (tsohon sojan Shackleton "Nimrod" Expedition
) Ya ce: A watan Maris na shekara ta 1911, su biyun suka tafi neman dukiya a tsibirin Cocos, amma bayan wata uku suka dawo hannu wofi.