Ronald Egerton Balfour (1896–1941) or professionally as Ronald Balfour was a British Illustrator and costume designer, best remembered for being the husband of Deirdre Hart-Davis and his Beardsleyesque depiction of the well known Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam published in 1920.

By 1915, Balfour joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman returning in 1919 to the family home in Chelsea.

[4] Balfour began his career as a commercial artist after the Great War as a costumer designer publishing his work in the likes of Tatler Magazine.

[7] In 1930, he married the socialite and 'Bright Young Thing' Deirdre Phyllis Ulrica Hart–Davis with whom he had two daughters, Susan (b.1931) and Annabel (b.1935).

[12] Balfour would die on 16 April 1941 in a car crash on the way to his country house, by way of Kingston Bypass, due to falling asleep at the wheel.