After leaving Carmarthen Grammar School he studied at the Royal College of Art.

He also wrote on the conservation of medieval monuments for The Times and the Burlington Magazine.

[1] Although best known for his cataloguing and watercolours of existing church murals, Tristram also painted original works.

These include chancel wall panels for St Elisabeth's Eastbourne, depicting St John the Baptist and his parents, as well as paintings at York Minster and Saint Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork City, Ireland.

He retired in 1948 and died in a nursing home in Newton Abbot in 1952.