nickson was born on 9 may 1864 and educated at trinity college, dublin and corpus christi college, cambridge. he was ordained in 1889. his first post was as a curate at holy trinity, cambridge, after which he was successively vicar of st benedict, cambridge, st john the divine fairfield, liverpool and st andrew's southport before being appointed rural dean of west derby in 1905. in 1906 he became the first suffragan bishop of jarrow. in 1914 he was translated to bristol. a man whose dedication to his ministry led to occasional collapses, he retired in 1933 and settled in church stretton, shropshire, dying on 23 february 1949 aged 84.