Swiss-English writer and illustrator Charles Ricketts was BOTD in 1866. Born in Geneva, Switzerland to an English father and a French mother, he was raised in France. At 16, he moved to London to study wood engraving at the Lambeth School of Art. There, he met fellow student Charles Haslewood Shannon, who became his life partner and artistic collaborator. After completing his studies, Shannon took a teaching position at an art school, while Ricketts worked as a commercial illustrator. In 1888, they founded the Vale Press in the former home of artist James Whistler, publishing over 75 books with their own woodcut illustrations, including Oscar Wilde’s short works A House of Pomegranates and The Sphinx. Shannon’s frequent affairs with women put strain on his relationship with Ricketts, but they remained together, becoming well-known in London society and befriending celebrity homosexuals including Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas and Aubrey Beardsley. After a fire in 1904, they closed the press, shifted their focus to paintings and sculpture. Together, they amassed a collection of European Old Masters, Greek and Roman antiquities and newly-fashionable Japanese art. Ricketts achieved success as a writer, published two well-regarded monographs and a collection of his art criticism. In 1915, he was offered the directorship of London’s National Gallery, which he turned down, regretting the decision in later life. He developed a lustrous second career as a theatre designer, creating sets and costumes for plays by Wilde, William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw and William Butler Yates. His costume design for the 1926 revival of Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera The Mikado were highly praised, and retained by the Savoy Theatre for the next 50 years. He became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1928, and was an art adviser to the National Gallery of Canada throughout the 1920s. In 1929, Shannon fell while hanging a picture at their home and suffered brain damage, effectively ending his career. Ricketts became his full-time carer, selling some of their art collection to pay for nursing care. The resulting mental strain and overwork brought on a heart attack, and he died in 1931, aged 65. Much of his correspondence was published after his death, including an intimate memoir of his friendship with Wilde. His life with Shannon was portrayed in Michael MacLennan’s 2003 play Last Romantics.