Reginald Tremberth was born in Yunnan, south-west China, the fourth child of William and Emily Tremberth.

In 1881 the Census shows that William (b1867) was living in Darite in the parish of St Cleer, near Liskeard, employed in tin and copper mining as an ore dresser. Later he trained for the ministry of the Primitive Methodist church and was assigned to the China mission in the early 1890s.  The family returned to England in 1905, living variously in Faversham, the Isle of Wight, Helston, Cornwall, Edgbaston and Bristol.

Reginald attended the Grammar School in Helston before proceeding to the University of Bristol to study geology, where he contributed scientific illustrations to research papers written by members of the faculty. He worked as a teacher at the Central School, Bilston (West Midlands), where he shared an interest in watercolours with a colleague.  In 1932 he married Mabel Cicely Maddern, who had been born in St Erth, near Hayle, cornwall in 1906.

Before WWII he visited West Cornwall regularly with his wife. On one of these occasions, in 1937, he exhibited work at NAG. During 1943-4 the family lived at St Erth and Barncoose near Redruth. From September 1944 he taught art and woodwork at King Edward VI School, Lichfield, Staffordshire, until his death in 1964. His main works of art have remained in the hands of his family.

[Information provided by his sons, Michael and John Tremberth]