Geoffrey Mark Clement Huskinson (25 September 1935 – 8 March 2018) was an English cartoonist and first-class cricketer. His cartoons found prominence from the mid-1970s, featuring in many exhibits, books and newspapers.

Life and career

The eldest of four children, Huskinson was born at Langar Hall to the first-class cricketer Geoffrey Huskinson, Sr. and his wife, Carmen Imogen de las Casas, who was the daughter of a Spanish nobleman from Cuba. ^[1] He began to lose his hearing aged ten, shortly before attending Ampleforth College. ^[1] It was his deteriorating hearing that sparked his interest in drawing. Unable to concentrate in class, he began doodling on his desk. ^[1] After leaving Ampleforth, he was offered places at Slade School of Fine Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, but accepted a place at Edinburgh College of Art. ^[1]

His time there was brief, with Huskinson moving to New Zealand where he worked on a sheep station until 1955. ^[1] He returned to England, where he bought a farm in Lincolnshire. ^[1] Huskinson played a first-class cricket match for the Free Foresters against Oxford University at Oxford in 1959. ^[2] He had little success in what was his only foray into first-class cricket, scoring 3 runs in the Free Foresters first-innings before being dismissed by David Russell, while in their second-innings he was dismissed by David Sayer for 7 runs. ^[3] He married Judith Chadfield in 1961, with the couple having three sons. ^[1] During this period he worked for Aveling-Barford as their representative in Africa and the Middle East, before leaving in 1967 when the company was taken over by British Leyland. ^[1]

He took up art once more in the mid-1970s, initially specialising in portraiture and sculpting. ^[1] He later exhibited some cartoons he had drawn, and decided to focus as a cartoonist after they sold out within 30 minutes. ^[1] He exhibited across the world between 1980 and 2007, and was regularly selling over 3,000 prints a year. ^[1] His illustrations filled a number of books, most prominently those about horse racing and cookery. ^[1] His wife died in 2007, with Huskinson briefly marrying Sue Ward, who ran his dealing network. ^[1] In 2014, he moved to Menorca to live by the golf course at Son Parc, ^[1] where he died in March 2018.

Family

His great-grandfather was Thomas Bayley, the Member of Parliament for Chesterfield. His sister, Imogen Skirving, was killed in a road accident in 2016 when she came to visit Huskinson in Menorca. ^[1]

References

External links

• Geoffrey Huskinson at ESPNcricinfo