Thomas Frederick Daws was born in London on 2 October 1878. He became known for his bold, colourful palette and his distinctive use of thick, expressive brushstrokes. His technique produced paintings of a more modern character than many of his contemporaries working in the field of canine portraiture.

Daws studied at the Lambeth School of Art and exhibited his first work at the Royal Academy in 1896 at the age of eighteen. He went on to exhibit eleven additional works at the Academy, and also showed at the Paris Salon, the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Walker Gallery in Liverpool, and the Royal Society of British Artists.

Daws is particularly associated with his long-standing commissions for Mrs. Campbell-Inglis of the Wimbledon Mannerhead Kennels, for whom he painted numerous poodles over a period of twenty years. Like his contemporary Reuben Ward Binks, he portrayed many prizewinning dogs for prominent fanciers. In addition to his paintings, Daws produced bronze sculptures that demonstrate his mastery of canine anatomy and serve as important records of top show dogs of the period.

In 1930, Daws became the principal artist designing a range of porcelain models of Crufts champion dogs for Royal Doulton, issued between 1931 and 1968. His paintings were also reproduced on a series of thirty-six postcards for the Spratts Dog Food Company. Several of his works, including depictions of Afghan hounds and Mannerhead poodles, are held in the collections of the American Kennel Club, while his portrait of the Samoyed Champion Loga of the Arctic—painted for Miss Marion Keyte Perry—was published as the cover of the Christmas supplement to Our Dogs and is now in the collection of the Kennel Club.