Harry Theaker

Harry Theaker (1873-1954) was an illustrator, designer, painter and teacher, born in Wolstanton, Staffordshire, the son of George Theaker, headmaster of Burslem School of Art.

Apprenticed to the Doulton pottery as a painter, Harry attended the Burslem School. He then went on to the Royal College of Art, where he won a gold medal for design and a travelling scholarship, which took him to Italy and further studies.

For 36 years he was design master and then headmaster, 1931–8, of Regent Street Polytechnic. As a member he showed extensively at RBA, also at RA, RI and Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. He was a painter of stained glass windows and a prolific illustrator of books for children, notably volumes in colour, titles including R.H. Barham’s The Ingoldsby Legends, 1911, Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies 1922, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales, 1930.