Lance Thackeray

{{Short description|British painter, illustrator, and writer (1869–1916)}}

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Lot "Lance" Thackeray {{post-nominals|list=RBA}} (17 January 1867 – 10 August 1916) was an English illustrator, known especially for his comic sporting illustrations involving billiards and golf and for his many humorous postcards.

Born in Darlington to Thomas Thackeray and his wife Selina Neish, Thackeray was baptized into the Church of England on 17 February 1867 at St John’s Church, Darlington."Lot Thackeray"

in England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 28 August 2022 {{subscription required}} At the 1881 United Kingdom census, Thackeray, one of nine children, was aged fourteen and was still at school, while his father was recorded as a railway foreman porter. Two older sisters were a dressmaker and a milliner. His 82-year old maternal grandfather, originally from Scotland, was living with the family and was a gardener.1881 United Kingdom census, [https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7572/images/DURRG11_4883_4887-0329 2, Brunton Street, Darlington], ancestry.co.uk, accessed 28 August 2022 {{subscription required}}

Thackeray was a founding member of the London Sketch Club. When he was over thirty, he spent some winters in Egypt and produced humorous sketches which he collected in The Light Side of Egypt (1908).Andrew Humphreys, [http://grandhotelsegypt.com/?p=646 "The Light Side of Egypt"], grandhotelsegypt.com, 27 August 2012[http://www.bridgemanart.com/search.aspx?key=light%20side%20of%20egypt&filter=CBPOIHV&sl=gb Images from "The Light Side of Egypt" (1908)], bridgemanart.com

Thackeray drew the designs for over 950 postcards, mostly humorous, and made a great number of illustrations for the press in England. At the beginning of the First World War despite being aged over forty, he volunteered for the Artists Rifles. He died in Brighton in 1916 after a long illness.

At the time of his death on 10 August 1916, Thackeray was a Lance Corporal. He was buried in the Extra Mural Cemetery at Brighton.