Lancelot Speed

Filed under: People, Animator, Artist, Cartoonist, Director, Editorial Cartoonist, Illustrator, 1890s, 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, black-and-white ink, Britain, hand-drawn, Lancelot Speed, Painted Animation, Silent, Stop Motion, World War 1 ( WW1 ),

Full Name:

Lancelot Speed

Occupation / Title:

Animator, Artist, Cartoonist, Director, Editorial Cartoonist, Illustrator

Date of birth:

13/06/1860

Date of death:

31/12/1931

Birthplace:

London, UK

Associated studios:

Neptune Films
Lancelot Speed Films

Biography

Lancelot Speed was a British illustrator and animator most known for illustrating fantasy and medieval novels, as well as for creating animated propaganda films during World War One. (Low, 170)

Family and early life

Lancelot Speed was born in 1860 in London, UK. (Houfe, 461) His father, William Speed, was a barrister and the family lived in the Portland Place neighbourhood of London. (Houfe, pg. 461; Cambridge Alumni Database)

Career outline

Speed started his career doing illustrations for magazines and books by various authors in England. During this early period of his career, he worked alongside the well-regarded and prolific artist Henry. J. Ford on illustrating Andrew Lang’s short-story collections “The Lang’s Fairy Books.” (University of Rodchester)

In 1914, Speed went to work at the newly formed Neptune Film Company, making political lampoons and propaganda cartoons about the War. Between 1914 and 1917, he worked on a number of NeptuneWar cartoons including French’s Contemptible Little Army (1914), Bully Boy (1915), and Sea Dreams (1915). (Low, 170)

Starting in 1917 until the end of the war, Speed made his own cartoons under the name “A Speed Cartoon” or “A Lancelot Speed Cartoon.” These short cartoons were distributed by Jury Imperial Pictures and included the works Tank Pranks (1917), Britain’s Effort (1918), and Britain’s Honor (1919). Much of the animated works done by Speed during this time were ‘lightening cartoons’ in which he appeared in the frame and drew the scene. (Hale, 2020)

After the war, Speed’s ability to fund and distribute his cartoon work dried up, as mass-scale propaganda campaigns were no longer needed. (Hale, 2020) He returned to illustrations for books and magazines, a trade he had also kept up throughout his time as an animator. Notably, he designed images for the 1912 and 1917 reprints of the novel King Arthur and The Nights of the Round Table. (University of Rodchester)

Speed died at the age of 71 on December 21, 1931. At the time of his death, he was residing in Southend-on-Sea, UK. (Houfe, 461)

Filmography

[Show/Hide]

References:

“Britain’s Effort” (1918), Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8flWqo7edY Accessed 27 Sept. 2026.

Hale, Peter “Lancelot Speed” A History of British Animation. 2020, Accessed 11 Oct. 2026. http://s200354603.websitehome.co.uk/personnel/LSpeed.htm

Houfe, Simon “Speed, Lancelot” Section in The Dictionary of Book Illustrators and Caturists, 1800-1914. 1978, Antique Collectors Club, Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbrit00houf/page/7/mode/1up

Low, Rachel “Film Content” Section in The History of British Film (Volume 3) 1914-1918 2013, Routeledge, Accessed 11 Oct. 2026.

“Lancelot Speed” University of Rodchester, Accessed 11 Oct. 2026. https://rbscpexhibits.lib.rochester.edu/exhibits/show/visualizing_camelot/speed

“Speed, Lancelot” Cambridge Archive Almuni Database, Accessed 9 Oct. 2026. https://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/Documents/acad/2018/search-2018.html