Harry Rodwell Prince was born in Watersheddings, Oldham on 7 October 1912. He was the only child of Arthur and Sarah Ellen Prince. His father worked as a foreman engineer at Mather & Platt Limited. At the age of 11, Prince won a scholarship to the Oldham Municipal Secondary School, a selective secondary school providing technical education. While attending Oldham Municipal Secondary School, his creative ability was recognised. In 1928, Prince was awarded a scholarship for a full course of instruction in black and white and poster drawing via correspondence course with the British and Dominions School of Drawing. The scholarship provided Prince with a special concessionary rate, which his parents paid for. At the same time, Prince began work at Headon Designs Ltd (Headons) in Faulkner Street, Manchester where he was a textile designer working on designs for the CPA, Courtaulds and Whitworth and Mitchell, among others. Prince worked alongside another textile designer, George Ainscow, for a couple of years. He met his wife, Evelyn Booth, while working at Headons. Prince left Headons in 1935 to begin work at Hopkinson's Mill, Trawden, Colne. Here he set up the mill's design studio, producing designs for shirtings. Prince married his wife Evelyn in 1939. Shortly afterwards, he joined the RAF and delivered Spitfire aircraft to active airbases during the Second World War. He returned to work at Hopkinson's Mill at the end of the war before moving to Walter Pollard (1923) Ltd in Nelson. Here, Harry and Evelyn Prince set up a design studio to produce designs for shirtings, employing two assistants. The mill closed in 1960 and Harry and Evelyn Prince began work at Moss Bros in Preston. They left Moss Bros in 1966 to open a gift shop in Morecambe. Harry Prince died in 2008.

The British & Dominions School of Drawing Ltd is known to have operated in the first half of the 20th century. It offered correspondence courses in different types of drawing. It issued its coursework as booklets. Students submitted their drawings for marking by the school's staff.