Ray Hutchins was educated at the Duke of York’s Royal Military School. He joined the Royal Artillery in 1950, serving in the Korean War and the Malaya Conflict. On demobilisation, he was manager for three major London studios before joining Rolls-Royce (Aero) Ltd as a senior illustrator. He then worked for the Ministry of Defence (Navy) and, later, with the MOD (Army) at Bovington, working on Shah and Challenger tanks. In 1980 he went freelance and has since illustrated over 200 publications.