Sir Frederick Rowland Emett was born in New Southgate, London. He was educated in Birmingham  and became a student at Birmingham School of Arts & Crafts, after which he worked as a commercial artist designer. He later became famous as a cartoonist and for his whimsical kinetic sculpture.

During the 1930s he rented 'The Jew's House' in Polperro, using the old smoke house on the Inner Quay as his studio. He retained a base in Polperro until the late 1940s and in 1946 contributed a painting, 'Two Boats' to an exhibition in Liskeard.

After World War II his work featured prominently at the Festival of Britain (1951).