Walter Yarwood was born in Toronto in 1917 and died in Hamilton, Ontario in 1996. He was largely self-taught.

His memberships included the Ontario Society of Artists, the Canadian Group of Painters and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was also a founding member of Painters-Eleven. Yarwood exhibited his work across Canada and internationally.

Among his important commissions are the sculptures at Sydney Smith Hall, University of Toronto; Winnipeg International Airport; York University, Toronto; and Expo ’67 Montreal.

Yarwood originally worked as an advertising artist while showing his paintings in group exhibitions.

By 1960, he had abandoned painting for sculpture; however, traces of his former two-dimensional orientation linger in this relief-like, free-standing monument of bronze.