Terry Mathews was born in England in 1931, brought up in Uganda, and educated in Kenya and England. His life as a child in Uganda was enriched by his close association with his next door neighbour, Captain Charles Pitman, the renowned Chief Game Warden of that country. Terry also wanted to be a game warden, but was both too young and also married when he applied to the Kenya Game Department after working for a few years in the bush as a survey cadet with the Survey of Kenya.

In 1956 he joined Ker & Downey Safaris Ltd. as an apprentice under Syd Downey, completing his training in 1958. Later, as a well-known and successful professional hunter in Kenya, he was much sought after as a guide on photo and hunting safaris and in 1967 he left Ker & Downey to form, with his wife Jean, their own company "Mathews Safaris", which still prospers today.

Since 1968, when Terry lost the sight in his lead eye in a shooting accident, he has concentrated more on what up until that time was his secondary profession, sculpture. At the instigation of Major W. G. "Johnny" Raw, the manager of Rowland Ward of Nairobi, he started having his sculpture cast in bronze. He was fortunate the have had the experience of being in the bush with wildlife on many photographic and collecting Safaris where he could take the time to study animals and birds, and this has given him a great knowledge of the wildlife he now sculpts as well as a vast store of subjects to choose from.

Terry Mathews has shown in over 30 exhibitions in Europe, America and Africa, including a number of one-man shows, and his work has been acquired by some of the most prestigious collections in the USA.

His bronzes can be seen at SWAN in Wallsworth, Gloucestershire and at Matbronze Wildlife Art Gallery, Kifaru Lane, Nairobi as well as Harrison Galleries in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In recent years he has received commissions for a number of large and life size pieces including a leopard, a St Bernard dog, an African elephant and a lioness.