Arnold Thorley died on 27 March 2001 at the age of 94. He was born on 7 January 1907. He studied medicine at University College Hospital, London, and qualified MRCS, LRCP, in 1932 and graduated MBBS (London) in 1934. He was awarded the MD (London) in 1939. Having decided to devote himself to psychiatry he obtained the DPM in 1936 and was elected to the FRCPsych as a Foundation Fellow.

During the Second World War he was a consultant psychiatrist on the staff of Belmont Hospital, Surrey, a war hospital for both civilians and combatants suffering from a variety of psychological trauma. Thorley had as colleagues some of the most eminent names in the history of British psychiatry, such as Louis Ninski, Eric West, Will Sargant and Eliot Slater.

Thorley was a retiring man, but took a keen interest in the local affairs of the Bookham, Surrey, community where he lived and where he was a prime mover in the rambling club.

In later life he became a qualified indexer and he gave invaluable service as an indexer for the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Psychiatric Bulletin for many years.