Lance Vickers

Lance Vickers (b. Salford, Lancashire, 10/03/1902 – d. South Africa, **/**/1979) was a jockey and a once-off actor.

Biography

Laurence Frederick Vickers was born in Greater Manchester and came out to South Africa in 1911 with his father, who was an electrician. At the age of 14 he was an apprentice jockey with Moss Moses and when Lorimer Johnston needed a teenaged boy who could ride a horse while being chased by German spies, he seemed a good choice to feature in Sonny’s Little Bit (1916). The “little bit” referred to his contribution to the war effort. His parents were played by Caroline Frances Cooke and M.A. Wetherell, and Edna Flugrath was his sister. The following year he was severely concussed in a riding accident at Gosforth Park, Germiston. Little else is known about him except that when, in 1927, he married Agnes Hanson Churchman, he was a tram conductor and when he travelled to England in 1954, he was a miner.

Sources

South African Pictorial, 7 April 1917

Rand Daily Mail, 27 July 1917

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm (1982)

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