Painter of industrial scenes, figures, seascapes and landscapes in oils. Born in Manchester, he worked as a clerk from 1903 and studied at private classes under Reginald Barber. From 1905 to 1915 he was an evening pupil at Manchester College of Art, working under Adolphe Valette, and from 1907 to 1915 he studied in private classes with William Fitz. He was employed as a clerk for the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Company between 1907 and 1910 and in 1910 he joined the Pall Mall Property Company where he continued to work until his retirement in 1952. Between 1915 and 1925 he attended classes at Salford School of Art under Bernard D Taylor and in 1918 he was accepted for the life class at Manchester Academy of Fine Arts. He lived at home and nursed his mother through the last years of her life until her death in 1939. In 1949 he moved to Mottram-in-Longdendale, Cheshire.

He exhibited first in 1919 in the Annual Exhibition of the Manchester Academy of Fine Art and in the 1920s he showed widely; at the Paris Salon, with the NEAC from 1927, in Dublin and Manchester. In 1930 he held a solo exhibition of drawings at the Round House, Manchester, and in 1939 there was a one-man exhibition of paintings at the Reid & Lefevre Gallery, London, where he subsequently held 15 solo exhibitions between 1945 and 1979. He exhibited at the RA from 1939 (RA 1962) and with the RBA from 193 (member 1934) and he was elected a member of the MAFA in 1934 and LG in 1948. Retrospective exhibitions of his work include those at Manchester City Art Gallery, 1959, and at the RA, London, 1976, and his work is represented in many public collections including the Tate Gallery, and MOMA, New York.

In 1953 he was appointed Official Artist at the Coronation, and he was awarded an Honorary D.Lit by the Universities of Salford and Liverpool in 1975. His early work showed the influence of Valette and shared some of the characteristics of the Camden Town School. Influenced by Bernard Taylor to use a white ground, he organised his canvas in terms of tonal contrast, the white ground playing a more prominent role in his later work. Best known for his paintings of industrial towns peopled by many slight, dark-toned and simplified figures painted without shadows, his work (including his imaginary portraits) is often melancholy and sometimes humorous.