We’ve been in the meadows all day
TOO busy to bother,’ was the response from William Lee Hankey when a journalist asked how he had celebrated his 80th birthday, adding that he had allowed the occasion to pass unmarked and spent it, as he usually did, working in his room in London’s Chelsea. This remark encapsulates the temperament of a man who was arguably one of the most energetic artists of his generation and deserves to be better appreciated.
The son of a Chester-based cabinetmaker and upholsterer, William Hankey attended the city’s King Edward’s School before taking up work with a local company that designed furniture, carpets, textiles and wallpaper. His days were spent producing meticulous blueprints and easing his boredom by making surreptitious, lightning figure sketches, which he often
