Painter, printmaker and book illustrator William Lee Hankey was born in Chester, England. He studied at the Department of Art and Design at the University of Chester (then the Chester School of Art), followed by additional studies at the Royal College of Art. In 1895, Hankey exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. Before his departure for France, he presided over the London Sketch Club from 1902 to 1904.

Thereafter, and through the period of the First World War, Hankey lived in France and was influenced by the work of Jules Bastien-Lepage. His watercolors earned high praise but beginning in 1902, he was particularly celebrated for his etchings, both monochrome and color, and later for his drypoints, whose subjects were derived from earlier watercolors or based on both pastoral life and the subsequent disruptions of the Great War. From 1936, he was a member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolors, and was elected its President in 1947.

He was awarded medals at the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition and a bronze medal at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. He died in London.