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Born in Glasgow, Spence was evacuated to Aberdeenshire during the Second World War being billeted with a local minister and his wife and then with he local gravedigger. Contracting tuberculosis a the age of 14 he was hospitalised in rural Alford. His fellow patients were largely servicemen and German Prisoners of War and in their company, his breadth of education expanded considerably into science, Spanish, music and chess. He also undertook a correspondence course in watercolour painting, using his fellow patients as ready models. On the strength of these studies, once recovered and back in Glasgow, Spence secured entry to GSA. His tutors included Donaldson, Squires, William and Mary Armour, and Benno Schotz. Amongst his fellow students were James Morrison, Anda Paterson (who became Spence's wife) and Alasdair Gray. In 1956 and 1957 he studied at Hospitalfield under John Maclaughlan Milne RSA. In 1958, having suffered the rejection of works to the RGI Annual Exhibition and despairing a the conservatism of the leading art bodies including the RSA and the RGI and the lack of outlets particularly in the West of Scotland for young artists to exhibit, Spence alongside Morrison and Paterson decided to form a group of likeminded artists and to mount an exhibition. Known as the Young Glasgow Group ("Young" was dropped from their name in 1966) the founding trio invited ten other artists to join them and they held their inaugural exhibition in 1958. Spence was elected President and held that office for the next 33 years. Spence balanced all this with his day job as a secondary school art teacher. His first charge was in the East end of Glasgow before being appointed Principal Teacher of Art at Dumbarton Academy. He was an enthusiastic and supportive teacher who did much to encourage his young charges to pursue a career in art.