The St Ives Times described him as the Canadian Government War Artist, well-known in the town.  Born 15 February 1866 in Sunderland, he studied at York School of Art, winning a National Scholarship to the RCA in 1886 and a Travelling Scholarship  in 1888.  He studied in Paris at the Académie Julian and Atelier Colarossi under Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury.

On his return to London in the early 1890s, he worked for a time on the staff at The Idler and for Cassell's as a black-and-white artist. He exhibited at the RA from 1893, also at the New Gallery and abroad, being awarded a Silver Medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1900, and at Pittsburgh in 1914. He painted portraits of King George V and Queen Mary at Windsor, and interiors of Buckingham Palace. From about 1930 he worked in Canada, where he painted landscapes as well as portraits, dying in Montreal on June 29th 1952.