The Reverend Henry Dalzell was born in 1868 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, receiving the degrees of B.A. in 1891 and M.A. in 1895. Becoming a Deacon in 1893, he was ordained a Priest in the following year. Dalzell entered the Royal Naval College in 1897 for training as a Chaplain and Naval Instructor and was appointed to his first ship, H.M.S. Hermione, in 1898. Aboard this ship he saw service in the Third China War and at the start of the Great War he served aboard the Battle Cruiser H.M.S. Indefatigable but this appointment was curtailed by illness.