Born in Margate, Kent in 1912, Wales studied at Thanet School of Art, followed by the Royal College of Art from 1933-37, a period where esteemed printmakers such as Edward Bawden, John Nash and Eric Ravilious made up the teaching staff. It was here that Wales discovered a love of wood engraving. Wales taught at the Canterbury School of Art from 1937-40, and after serving in the RAF during World War II, returned to teach in Kent. In 1953 Wales joined the Norwich School of Art, where he taught until retirement in 1977.
Although a dedicated teacher, Wales also pursued his own work and made illustrations for the Golden Cockerel Press, the Folio Society and the Kynoch Press. Small, poetic, abstract prints - the coastal landscape and all it contained was an important source of inspiration for Wales. While he was indifferent about public recognition, Wales did exhibit regularly with the Society of Wood Engravers and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. An obituary in The Guardian following Wales’ death in 1990 noted that Wales ‘deserves wide recognition as one of a now acclaimed generation of British artists whose work for small presses…represents a high point in British printmaking’.
