 He then went to work at the prestigious Squire & Son, Queen Victoria's official chemist's in the West End of London, and rounded off his education with a spell working on the Continent.He qualified as a pharmacist in 1899 and in 1902 opened a chemist shop in Great George Street, Leeds with his partner Henry Scurrah Wainwright.In 1903 Thackray married Helen Pearce, daughter of a leading Leeds jeweller.