Alfred Hackney, illustrator, printmaker, and painter, was born in 1926 in Stainforth, Yorkshire, the younger brother of artist Arthur Hackney. He studied at Burlsem School of Art , and then at Edinburgh College where he earned a traveling scholarship to France and Italy. He taught at Willesden School of Art and Medway College of Art in Rochester.

Alfred Hackney was a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolors and was an associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers; he exhibited with the London Group, the Society of Scottish Artists, and Royal Academicians. He illustrated Boy of the Indian Frontier by Wray Hunt in 1955.

Alfred Hackney died in Colbham, Kent, England in 1994.