Landscape painter in oil and watercolour, printmaker and teacher, born in Chatham, Kent. He studied at West Ham College of Art, 1935–6; South East Essex Technical and College of Art, 1936–9; the Slade School of Fine Art, 1939–41; and London University Institute of Education, 1941–4. He ran a teacher-training course at Hornsey College of Art, 1948–66, then joined staff of the College of Art in Sheffield, Yorkshire, where he settled, until the mid-1980s. Townley was an associate of the RE and a frequent exhibitor with the Sheffield Society of Artists at Graves Art Gallery. Sheffield Arts Collection and Art for Schools Collection hold Townley’s work.