Bicknell was born as Rosetta Jane Arthur on 13 July 1903 in Chelsea, London. She remembered watching the Titanic set off in 1912. She left school aged 14, and worked at Drayton Paperworks in Fulham, London, where she met Frederick John Bicknell in 1923.

The couple married in 1925 and had one daughter, Lilian, in 1927. They moved to Hounslow, London, and soon bought the dwelling that Bicknell would occupy for the rest of her life. She worked as a seamstress, and was widowed in 1968.

On her 106th birthday, Bicknell injured her foot and visited the hospital, but returned home later that day. As of 2009, Bicknell still darned all of her own clothing, lived independently, and was a great-grandmother. She claimed that the secret to her longevity was “keeping busy.”

Bicknell died on 8 September 2013 at the age of 110 years, 57 days. She was one of the oldest residents of Greater London.