When Richard W. Thackeray was born in 1863, in Canada, his father, Francis Thackeray, was 42 and his mother, Ann Jeannett Haskin, was 30. He married Lillian Herter on 16 January 1901, in Grinnell, Poweshiek, Iowa, United States. He lived in Grinnell, Poweshiek, Iowa, United States for about 50 years. He died on 6 October 1931, in Cedar Rapids, Linn, Iowa, United States, at the age of 68, and was buried in Grinnell, Poweshiek, Iowa, United States.