Arthur Theodore Culwick was born on 4 October 1905 in Dublin and educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was a Hulme Exhibitioner in Natural Sciences, specialising in chemistry. He took a Masters Diploma in Anthropology and became a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain.

Culwick joined the Colonial Service and worked in the Tanganyika Administration from 1927 to 1946, planning, and for 13 years carrying out, the agricultural and economic development of the Kilombero Valley Area. From 1946 to 1951 he was Research Officer in the East African High Commission, undertaking proto-zoological research on sleeping sickness.

From 1951 to 1962 Culwick farmed in Kenya, serving as a district officer and magistrate during the Mau Mau rebellion. He became Chairman of the Kenya United Party and was a special adviser at the Lancaster House Conference on the future of Kenya in 1960. Culwick moved to South Africa in 1962 and worked in the Immigration Department, resettling others who had left East Africa. He joined the Information Department in 1966.

Culwick wrote a number of books and articles on politics, archaeology, anthropology, agriculture and disease. He married the artist Rowena Bush (1917-1998) and had two sons.