Willis Eadon was born at Sheffield on 14th September 1863, the son of John Eadon a cutlery manufacturer. In 1891 he was a schoolteacher living in outer south Sheffield (technically Derbyshire), but by 1901 had become an 'artist and photo engraver', as he was also shown in the 1911 census. In 1909 he was on the Selecting/Hanging Committee of the Sheffield Society of Artists, and he is listed as an artist in Sheffield directories from 1901 until at least 1920. He later moved to the Derbyshire Peak District and died there on 21st January 1948, followed on the 28th by his wife Frances. They are buried at St Anne’s, Baslow, where their substantial monument also commemorates their elder son Eric (1900–1923) and the latter’s fiancée Winifred Swindin.