Thorley was the son of a well-to-do retired draper and magistrate, and his young wife.[1] He was twice married, first to Katherine E Dunn in 1914, and after her death in 1925, second to Gertrude M Neville in 1937.[2]
He was educated privately, then at the Liverpool Institute (and possibly the University of Liverpool) and Grenoble University. However, he said that he learnt most while teaching English to foreign students in Sweden, Belgium, France and Italy, during the ten years preceding World War I.
His best-known poem is "Chant for Reapers", due to its inclusion in the Oxford Book of English Verse.[3]
Publications
A Primer of English for Foreign Students, 1910
Confessional, and other Poems, reprinted 1911
An English Reader for Foreign Students, 1913
Florentine Vignettes, Being Some Metrical Letters of the Late Vernon Arnold Slade, edited by Wilfrid Thorley, 1914
Paul Verlaine, 1914
Fleurs-de-Lys:: A Book of French Poetry Freely Translated into English Verse, 1920
Cloud-Cuckoo-Land: a Child's Book of Verses, 1923
The Londoner's Chariot. (Poems about London Transport Hansom Cabs to Motor Buses), 1925
A Bouquet from France: one hundred French poems with English translations in verse and brief notes, 1926
Maypole Market: a Child's Book of Verses, 1927
Cartwheels and Catkins: Verses for Girls and Boys, 1930
A Year in England for Foreign Students, 1930
The Happy Colt, and other verses, 1940
Barleycomb Billy, and other rhymes, 1943
The French Muse, 50 Examples with Biographical and Critical Notes, 1944
As Harley Quinn:
A Caboodle of Beasts, 1945
Quinn's quiz: Being rhymed riddles on a variety of subjects for young and old, 1957
