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An oil painter and teacher, Morley Bury was born in Bournemouth and made up his mind to be an artist whilst at school. He attended Bournemouth Municipal College of Art from 1937 to 1939, then attended Reading University from 1939 to 1940.

He spent six years in the Army, with a tank regiment in the Western Desert and was then a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany, being freed by Russian troops and repatriated. After the war Bury returned to Reading University, where he met his wife, art historian Shirley Bury. He also attended Regent Street Polytechnic and Goldsmiths College as well as studying textiles at evening classes at the Central School of Arts and Crafts. He taught part time at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, from 1948 to 1958 and then part time at Hornsey College of Art until retirement in 1984.

Mixed shows included the New English Art Club in 1950; the London Group and Daily Express Young Artists, both in 1954; Vision and Reality, Wakefield City Art Gallery in 1957; 3 Artists, South London Art Gallery in 1961; Centaur Gallery, 1970 and the Forgotten Fifties, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield and tour 1984. Bury also showed with AIA, Hampstead Artists’ Council, Heal’s Mansard Gallery and Everyman Foyer, Hampstead where he had a series of solo exhibitions from 1960.

Public and corporate collections include the Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Salford Art Gallery, Cambridge University and Rank Xerox.