The Heartbreaking Story of Charles Dickens’s Final Christmas Turkey

On Christmas Eve afternoon in 1869, George Dolby was enjoying a peaceful time at his family home in Ross-on-Wye, a quaint riverside town in Herefordshire, England. The tranquility was abruptly shattered by the arrival of an urgent message:

WHEREISTHATTURKEY?ITHASNOTARRIVED! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

The sender—none other than Charles Dickens—would receive a reply by the end of the day. But would he get his Christmas turkey?

Festive Fowl

Dickens’s connection to turkey, particularly as the star of Christmas dinner, extended beyond Ebenezer Scrooge’s generous act toward the Cratchit family in A Christmas Carol. The bird also appeared in his other Christmas tales, such as The Seven Poor Travellers and A Christmas Dinner.

Dickens himself was fond of indulging in turkey, frequently referencing it in letters about his holiday plans. During the Victorian era, gifting a turkey to a friend for Christmas was a common practice, and Dickens’s publishers made it an annual tradition.

“My Dear Sirs,” he wrote on January 2, 1840, “I decided not to thank you for the turkey until it was entirely consumed, so you could fully appreciate its remarkable size. The last remains of that glorious bird appeared at breakfast yesterday—yes, yesterday—while the rest provided seven grills, one boil, and a couple of cold lunches.”

When George Dolby decided to present the celebrated author with one of these prized birds in 1869, it seemed like a thoughtful gesture. Dolby, a cheerful man in his late thirties, had been overseeing Dickens’s public readings for several years, and the two had developed a strong bond. The 1869 holiday season was especially hectic, as Dickens had just completed his final London performance on December 22. Although Dolby’s family commitments kept him from joining the Dickens family’s Christmas celebrations in Kent, he wanted to contribute in spirit—and sending the finest turkey was the perfect way to do so.

Dolby understood the significance of selecting a turkey for the Christmas feast of the man who created A Christmas Carol.

“I went to great lengths to secure the finest turkey that Ross, or even the entire county of Hereford, could offer,” he wrote in his 1887 memoir, Charles Dickens As I Knew Him. After obtaining a “magnificent bird” weighing around 30 pounds, Dolby assured Dickens it would arrive by Christmas Eve.

You can imagine Dickens’s dismay when Christmas Eve arrived, and the turkey was nowhere to be found.

The Smoking Car

Dickens’s dramatic message wasn’t the only one sent to Dolby that afternoon. He also learned that around a dozen other packages filled with food had failed to reach their destinations.

While heading to the local train station to look into the issue, the puzzled gift-giver ran into the station-master, who was on his way to the Dolby home with unfortunate news. The horse-box—a covered carriage designed to transport horses or cargo—carrying the holiday hampers had caught fire between Gloucester and Reading.

The cause of the fire remains unknown to this day; Britain’s National Railway Museum suggests that sparks from the engine might have set the wooden car ablaze while the train was in a tunnel. Regardless, Dolby didn’t dwell on the cause—nor did he focus on seeking compensation for the lost items, “as their value … paled in comparison to my anguish over Mr. Dickens being without his turkey on Christmas Day,” he wrote. Dolby quickly sent a telegram to his friend, urging him to find a replacement turkey without delay.

Sadly, Dolby’s storytelling skills didn’t quite match Dickens’s (whose could?), as his account leaves out whether a substitute turkey was secured in time for Christmas dinner. What we do know is that Dickens’s frustration didn’t linger. On February 5, 1870, he wrote a remarkably gracious reply to James Charles Kingett, the Great Western Railway superintendent who had apologized for the incident:

“In response to your letter, I must say that I believe my Christmas provisions were lost in an unavoidable accident, and I bore the loss with unwavering goodwill toward the Great Western Railway Company.”

Dickens reportedly “[spoke] of the incident often, and with appreciation,” according to Dolby. Why? Because the railway company sold “the scorched remnants of turkeys and beef cuts” at low prices to the impoverished residents of Reading. 

The Oliver Twist author passed away in June 1870—meaning it’s possible his final Christmas turkey provided sustenance for the very social class that inspired many of his iconic characters. Perhaps if Great Western Railway’s officials had been visited by a few Christmas spirits, they might have at least given away the charred meat for free.