The son of a doctor, Edwards grew up at Benarth, a small estate in
Conway, North
Wales. His father, from whom he acquired his love of
fox hunting, died when he was seven. From an early age, he showed a talent for drawing horses, an artistic trait which may have come from his maternal grandmother, who was a pupil of
George Romney. It seemed he was heading for an
Army career until it became apparent that his talents did not lie in that direction, so his mother allowed him to study art in
London, first with
A.S. Cope and later at the
Heatherley School of Fine Art and
Frank Calderon's School of Animal Painting. He became the youngest member of the
London Sketch Club at the age of nineteen. In 1905, he married Ethel Wells and the couple moved out of London to
Radley, in
Oxfordshire, and later to
Worcestershire, before moving back to Benarth. They both were enthusiastic fox hunters: during his life, Edwards hunted with almost every pack in the country. On the outbreak of the
Great War, he volunteered as a
Remount Purchasing Officer along with his contemporaries,
Cecil Aldin and
Sir Alfred Munnings. On being demobilised, he and his family moved to
West Tytherley, near
Salisbury, where he lived for the rest of his life. His artistic output was remarkable: he wrote almost 30 books and illustrated many more, including editions of
Black Beauty,
Lorna Doone and
The Black Arrow, in addition to numerous private commissions. He became a member of the
Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1926 and the
Royal Institute in 1927. His favorite medium was
watercolours, although he used oils more in his later years. His work was also part of the art competitions at the
1928 Summer Olympics, the
1932 Summer Olympics, and the
1948 Summer Olympics. He worked to the end of his life, dying from a stroke at his home on 13 April 1966. ==Publications==