Henry George Rushbury was born on October 28, 1889, in Harborne, England, outside Birmingham. He studied at the Birmingham School of Art with Robert Catterson Smith at age 13 and then trained as a stained glass artist with Henry Payne until 1912.

Rushbury moved to London where he shared lodgings with fellow Birmingham student Gerald Brockhurst. During World WarI he became an official war artist and began studying etching with Francis Dodd and was influenced by etcher Muirhead Bone, later studying with Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Art in 1921.

Rushbury, who used the nickname “Harry'”, was elected as a member of the New English Art Club in 1917, the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1921, the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in1922, and the Royal Academy in 1936. By 1936 he had produced 111 intaglios.

Between 1940 and 19945 he again worked as a war artist during World War II. In 1949 he was elected Keeper of the Royal Academy and Head of the Royal Academy Schools, a position he had until 1964. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 1964 New Year Honours.

Henry Rushbury died on July 5,1968 in England, the United Kingdom