He was born the eldest son of 12 children at Meresborough House, a country estate near
Rainham, Kent, the son of Percy Wakeley (1860–1954) and his first wife Mary ("May") Sophia Pembrey (1865–1940). He was educated at
King's School, Rochester and
Borden Grammar School, both in
Kent and then from 1907 to 1910 at
Dulwich College. In 1910 he went to
King's College Hospital, where he received the
Jelf Medal for surgery and qualified in 1915. He joined the Royal Navy and spent part of World War I as a temporary surgeon aboard the hospital ship HMHS
Garth Castle at Scapa Flow. In 1922 he was appointed to the staff at
King’s College, London and was senior surgeon from the age of 41 until his retirement. In 1926 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were
David Waterston,
Reginald Gladstone,
John Millar Thomson and
Joseph Strickland Goodall. In the
Second World War he was again a surgeon serving the
Royal Navy at the honorary rank of
rear admiral. He was made a
baronet in 1952. In 1947 he founded the
Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England which he continued to edit until 1969. He was president of the college from 1949 to 1954 during the period of establishment of the Faculty of Anaesthesia. He was elected President of the
Hunterian Society for 1961. Wakeley was active in
creationist circles and was a member of the
Evolution Protest Movement (now
Creation Science Movement). He died in London on 5 June 1979. ==Family==