Born in 1926 in Leek, Staffordshire, William Bowyer RA RWS RP PPNEAC trained at Burslem School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, where his tutors included Carel Weight and Ruskin Spear.
 
He became Head of Fine Art at Maidstone College of Art and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1973 and elected full member in 1981. He was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters and was Honoured Secretary (President) of the New English Art Club for thirty years. His work could be seen regularly at the RA Summer exhibition as well as at New English exhibitions. William combined his love of cricket and humour to create some of the sharpest portraits (Viv Richards; Arthur Scargill) in London’s National Portrait Gallery and is remembered for his glittering paintings of the River Thames and his powerful pictures of the Suffolk coast.