Thomas Henry (illustrator)

Thomas Henry (born Thomas Henry Fisher) (1879–1962) was an English illustrator, best remembered for his illustrations of Richmal Crompton's William books.

Thomas Henry Fisher was born in 1879 at Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. The oldest of 3 brothers, he became an apprentice to T. Bailey Forman (Nottingham newspaper proprietors and printers) at the young age of fourteen. Numerous paintings and sketches he made outside contract were used by his employers for publishing merchandise like wall calendars. He parallelly attended the Nottingham School of Art.

His first published works are probably cartoons for the Nottingham Football Post, in September, 1904. He parallelly freelanced under the name of Thomas Henry. Pastel and watercolour were his chosen mediums at that time.

Thomas Henry was associated with the advertising division of Nottingham-based cigarette firm John Players and was reputed to have assisted in the updating of the famous sailor's head, found on the Navy Cut cigarette packet.

He married Gertrude Ellen Mensing from Cotgrave in 1906 and settled down in Plumtree, Nottinghamshire, a neighbouring village on the outskirts of Nottingham. Their daughter Marjorie was born in 1911.

Thomas Henry's rise as an illustrator was fast. He regularly started publishing cartoons in top magazines like Punch by 1913. By 1920, he was an established illustrator, having published widely in leading publications like the Strand Magazine and London Mail. Henry defined the image of Richmal Crompton's William for magazines in 1919 and followed it up by illustrating the first William book - Just William, when it was published in 1922. He eventually went on to illustrate 33 William books. Among his other works of this period were illustrations for numerous other children's books like Our Elizabeth Again by Florence A. Kilpatrick. He was also the first illustrator of Evadne Price's Jane stories when they appeared in the Novel magazine between 1927 and 1937. He illustrated the first three collections of Jane stories at the publishing house of Newnes, which folded into IPC Media (now a branch of Time Warner). However, he signed his name as "Marriott", as Evadne Price was eager not to associate the Jane stories and the William stories, and disliked the reference to the character of Jane as the "female William".

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