Archibald Wakley was heavily influenced by the second generation of Pre-Raphaelites, particularly Edward Burne-Jones and Evelyn De Morgan. Despite his artistic promise his career was short-lived and his oeuvre small, as a result of his untimely death. A prodigious talent and frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy, was murdered with a hammer in his studio on Westbourne Grove. He was the Son of Nathaniel George and Amelia Wakley.