(Dennis) William Dring was a well-known painter of portraits and landscapes in oil, watercolour and pastel. He was born in London and studied at the Slade School under Henry Tonks 1922-25, where he was a scholar and prize winner. In 1930, he was appointed teacher of drawing and painting at the Southampton School of Art, and from 1942-45 he worked as an official war artist for the Admiralty and Air Ministry. In 1931 he met and married fellow artist Elizabeth Rothwell who was the model for many of his paintings and drawings.