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Name
Leech, John
Birth date
1817
Death date
1864
Biography
John Leech was born in London and, like Thackeray, with whom he established a life-long friendship, was educated at Charterhouse School. Leech was originally destined for the medical profession but, apparently on account of some family financial crisis, he was obliged to start earning his living in his early twenties as a free-lance illustrator. With the help of Thackeray he got a job with “Punch” magazine. He formed close friendships with Charles Dickens and with the Victorian painter WP Frith, and knew Millais and Trollope. Leech became a member of the Garrick Club in 1849. He was a rather nervous horseman, but that didn’t prevent him from riding to hounds with unbounded enthusiasm. He made delightful illustrations to several of R. S. Surtees’s sporting novels and is also known for having illustrated Dickens’s “Christmas Carol”.