Born in Levenshulme in 1913, George Frederick Ainscow attended Rochdale School of Art from 1929-1933 before joining Headon Designs (Headons) in Manchester as a textile designer at the age of nineteen. One of Headons' biggest areas was designing textiles for the West African market and Ainscow spent the first year of his training learning the design techniques to produce African print designs.

Ainscow left Headons after 18 months to work for Ivan de Couteré's studio in Portland Street, Manchester. Initially employed as an African textile designer, the studio eventually abandoned its attempts to enter the African textile market and Ainscow moved onto textile designs for the Home Trades market. He remained at de Couteré's studio until 1940, when he volunteered for the RAF. He returned to de Couteré's in 1946, where he was put in charge of the designing staff.

Ainscow left the de Couteré studio in around 1947 and joined the newly established studio of H Simmonds. While working there, he began to draw designs freelance at home, with the intention of setting up his own studio. In 1950, he found a studio in Bridge Street, Manchester and set up his own textile design company which he successfuly ran until he retired in 1979.

After his retirement, Ainscow took up painting in oils and watercolour and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the Royal Watercolour Society, the Royal Intitution and the New English Art Club. He won the gold and silver medal at the Paris Salon in 1980 and 1981. He had solo exhibitions at The Mall Galleries, Salford Art Gallery, Oldham Art Gallery and Rochdale Art Gallery.

George Ainscow died in 2013.