West's first employment was as a cashier with the engineering firm of Priestman Brothers of Hull and, whilst working there, he studied art at Bootham School in York.
[1] Having saved a modest amount from his wages, in 1883 he travelled to London to study at St John's Wood Art School, then at the Royal Academy Schools and in Paris at the Académie Julian.
[2] In 1887 West was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Academy for a drawing of a head from life.
[5] He often signed his work with a monogram consisting of a weathervane pointing west and the letters of his surname.
He was buried at the Friends Burial Ground at Jordans, Buckinghamshire.