The son of a Church of England chaplain, W. H. Timperley was educated at Shrewsbury School in England and Berner Hochschule in Switzerland. With his father and brother, he migrated from England to Perth and served in the police force from 1856 at a number of locations. He was promoted to an inspector in 1870 and in 1885 became the Superintendent of the Aboriginal Prison on Rottnest Island. Timperley was encouraged to write by a Lady Broome who was fascinated by the stories he told. She edited the autobiographical Harry Treverton: His Tramps and Troubles: Told by Himself (1889) and Timperley completed Bush Luck: An Australian Story in 1892. Both stories were first serialised in the Boys' Own Paper.

See also the full Australian Dictionary of Biography Online entry for William Henry Timperley.