Balliol Salmon is described by Simon Houfe in his Dictionary of British Book Illustrators (1978) as one of the best pencil and chalk artists to work for the press in the Edwardian period. The son of a surgeon and barrister, he studied art under Fred Brown at the Westminster School and afterwards at Julian's in Paris. He followed a career as both a teacher and a full time illustrator on The Graphic,living in Glasgow and Bedford Park, London.