Artist Database

William Timlin was born in 1892 in Ashington, Northumberland, in the United Kingdom. He was an artist from a young age, and his talent was recognised with a scholarship to the Armstrong College of Art in Newcastle. In 1912, he moved with his parents to Kimberley in the Northern Cape and undertook further studies in art and architecture. While Timlin became an accomplished architect, designing many buildings for Kimberley, he is perhaps most well known as an artist, particularly of science fiction and fantasy illustrations. He wrote and illustrated the book The Ship that Sailed to Mars: A Fantasy, initially intended for his son, but which he ultimately published in 1923. Timlin was a multimedia artist, working in watercolour, oils, pastels, and etchings, and regularly exhibited his works locally.