Ronald Ewart Oakeshott was born in 1916. His uncle Jeffery Farnol wrote romance novels and swashbucklers and also had a collection of antique swords, through which the young Oakeshott became interested in swords. After leaving Dulwich College, Oakeshott studied at the Central School of Art in London. He worked at Carlton Studios and at A.E. Johnson Ltd as a commercial artist, while still being interested in collecting arms and armour. During the 1930s and 1940s, antique swords could still beacquired relatively cheaply and Oakeshott began collecting them. Because of the scarcity of information about these he began to research them himself. As a trained artist he illustrated most of his own books and also became a speaker on arms and armour.