Painter of wildlife, notably birds, born near Kandy, Ceylon, son of the painter and naturalist George Henry and brother of the wildlife artist Bruce Henry. He began painting aged six. After school he did an office job in London for a while, then was conscripted into the Royal Tank Corps in 1940, becoming an officer cadet at Sandhurst. During the North Africa campaign Reid-Henry became ill, then served in India and the Far East as an officer in the military police, where he cultivated his interest in wildlife painting. Apart from lessons with his father and help from the noted bird painter George Lodge, Reid-Henry was self-taught. In 1948 he married and settled in Woodford Green, Essex, where he set up a studio as an artist and falconer. Although he illustrated many books and magazines, and produced several stamp series, his fees were low and living was hard.
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In 1960 Reid-Henry was commissioned to paint in Rhodesia, where he stayed two years, acquiring his famous African crowned eagle Tiara, with which he hunted rabbits. The bird was so fierce that on occasion Reid-Henry had to enter hospital because of talon lacerations. Reid-Henry emigrated to Rhodesia where, after a divorce, in 1976 he married the botanist and ornithologist Louise Westwater. Reid-Henry was a founder-member of SWLA. He did commissioned work, but his main sales were through exhibitions which he planned in southern Africa and Britain. Reid-Henry regarded himself as a naturalist, who hated deadlines that impeded study, sketched from life and scorned those who used photographs. He kept a collection of live birds and bird skins for authenticity. Reid-Henry consorted more with ornithologists and museum men than with painters. He died of cancer at his home in what is now called Harare, Zimbabwe, having, according to his brother, left “a legacy of skill and excellence in wildlife art which few have attained”. In 1979 the National Gallery of Zimbabwe put on a show of Reid-Henry’s bird sketches.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
