Lobley was the son of a woollen merchant in Huddersfield. He studied in London at the
Slade School of Fine Art, at the
Royal College of Art and at the
Royal Academy. He also married in London and lived at 13 Musgrave Crescent,
Walham Green. Later, he moved to
Dorset. During World War One, Lobley was commissioned by the Royal Army Medical Corps to produce an artistic record of their work and created 120 paintings in both France and Britain. It has been said of Lobley that "Like many of the artists who witnessed the War first hand, he was deeply affected by what he had seen. His paintings of the War do not glorify it at all." In addition to his wartime work, Lobley painted figures, portraits and landscapes. Whilst in London, he is said to have painted "many charming views of London, showing the many parks and squares". Some Dorset landscapes and a portrait of his wife owned by the Imperial War Museum. A painting of his called
Harvest was praised in
The New Age for 28 July 1910 (Vol. 7, p. 307). Lobley won the Turner Gold Medal, a scholarship for landscape painting in 1903, and two Silver medals on subsequent occasions. ==Collections==