Clive MacDonnell Dixon (10 February 1870 Middlesbrough - 6 Nov 1914 Ypres) was an English illustrator and soldier, best known for the charming images in his book The Leaguer of Ladysmith, created during the four-month Siege of Ladysmith in South Africa. This material also appeared in the Ladysmith Lyre at the time of the siege. The Sphere praised the book, describing it as 'highly humorous and showing comic sketching genius'.
Dixon was the fifth-born in a family of 6 daughters and 2 sons of Sir Raylton Dixon (1838–1901), shipbuilder from Cleveland Dockyard, Middlesbrough-on-Tees, mayor of Middlesbrough in 1889, and himself an amateur artist and caricaturist. [1][2]
Clive Dixon embarked on a military career and was appointed second lieutenant in the 16th Lancers in October 1890, and captain in 1899. In the Anglo-Boer War he was aide-de-camp to Sir George White.
Dixon married Lilian Margaret Bell, who was living at Chapelgarth, Great Broughton, North Yorkshire [3] when he was killed at Ypres shortly after being promoted to major. He was buried in the Nieuwkerke Churchyard in Belgium.
Several watercolours by Dixon are kept by the Africana Museum.