William Harold Oakley [also known as Harold Oakley and as W. Harold Oakley] was born in Southampton, Hampshire, England on 7 November 1857. He trained as an architect under Edward Francis Channing Clarke (1834-1904) and was then an assistant to Robert Jewell Withers (1823?-1894). He also studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. He worked as an independent architectural artist and painter in London from 1881.
Between 1881 and 1929, Oakley exhibited at the Royal Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, London Salon and at Walker's Gallery in London.
He was elected a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (LRIBA) in 1911.
Oakley contributed illustrations to the Strand Magazine and English Illustrated Magazine in the 1880s and 1890s. He also illustrated A Ramble in Rhyme in the Country of Cranmer and Ridley - A Kentish Garland by S. Theobald Smith (London: Chapman & Hall, 1889); London River by H. M. Tomlinson (London: Cassell & Co., 1921); The Yadil Book (London: Clement & Johnsn, 1921); A Ramble in Old Hampstead (London: he Homeland Association Ltd, 1925); and New Rambles in Old London (London: he Homeland Association Ltd, 1926).
Oakley's address was given as 30 Maiden Lane, Strand, London (1880s); 3 Tauntomn Street, Covent Garden, London in 1911; and 14 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London in 1911 and 1926. He died in Brentford, Middlesex in 1929
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 2: L-Z. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
‘Obituary’. Royal Institute of British Architects Journal vol. 36, 15 June 1929 p. 511