Thomas Patrick John Anson was an English photographer and portraitist. He was the only son of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas William Arnold Anson and a first cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. From his paternal grandfather, he inherited the Earldom of Lichfield. His professional name was Patrick Lichfield.
Lord Lichfield was educated at Harrow and Sandhurst before joining the Grenadier Guards in 1959. Following his discharge from the Army in 1962, he worked as a photographer’s assistant and built up his reputation, partly due to his access to the Royal Family. In 1981, he was chosen to take the official wedding photos of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and he later became one of the best-known photographers in the country. In 1999, he pioneered digital photography at a professional level. Prince Philip chose him to capture the official photos for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002.
Lichfield suffered a stroke on 10 November 2005 and died the following day (Remembrance Day) at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, aged 66. Lord Lichfield took pictures of celebrities from the 1960s to the 1980s as part of his work as a portrait photographer.
