Born at Darley, Warwickshire, Myles Tonks RI RBA (1890–1960) studied at Medway School of Art and received training from his uncle, Henry Tonks, the influential Slade Professor of Fine Art 1918–1930, whose other students included amongst others David Bomberg, Mark Gertler, Harold Gilman, Spencer Gore, Augustus John, Gwen John, Percy Wyndham Lewis and Stanley Spencer. Henry Tonks was ruthless in his teaching of life drawing and copying from the Antique, instilling in his students the importance of accurate draughtsmanship—It is said that Myles was the only relation with whom Henry cared to talk about painting—and it was from this grounding that Myles Tonks excelled.

Myles Tonks favoured freely painted landscape subjects. He enjoyed travelling to remote parts of the British Isles to immerse himself in areas of rugged and uninhabited nature. He would create sketches, notes and photographs in situ, which he then used as inspiration for paintings back at his studio.

Tonks exhibited at the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and elsewhere. Like his uncle, Myles was a medical doctor by profession. He lived at Watchet in Somerset.