John Dalley was born and raised in Sydney, but he and his brothers completed their education in England after the death of their father, a politician and barrister, in 1888.

After a year, however, Punch was incorporated into the weekly magazine Table Talk and Dalley left for England where he became the London correspondent for Melbourne's Herald newspaper.

In about March 1898 William wrote to Frank Butler, who had been one of the guardians of the three brothers: "We have a good time here with plenty of horses, and lots of riding, fishing, shooting, and hunting".

[7] In October 1899, Dalley's younger brother Charles died after suffering a broken neck from an accident while hunting at Enfield, north of London.

[8][9] Charles Dalley's remains were sent to Sydney on the mail steamer Cuzco, accompanied by his brothers William and John, for interment in the family vault at Waverley Cemetery.

William Dalley petitioned for the dissolution of his marriage on the ground of his wife's adultery with his brother John (who was named as a co-respondent in the case).

[B] When the case concluded on 1 December the jury was locked up for twelve hours, after which they advised the judge they "were not prepared to give a verdict on all the issues".

[1] John Dalley suffered from hearing loss, a legacy of injuries he had received from falls from a horse while engaged in hunting pursuits.

In addition to a fractured knee and a broken collarbones, Dalley had suffered from concussion on three occasions while undertaking the sport in both England and Australia.

It was said that Dalley's mode of writing and sub-editing "faithfully echoed the style on which the 'Bulletin' was founded" (described as "that thing of ease, keen edge, and ironic flippancy which was the authentic invention of the 'Bulletin' in the golden age of paragraph-writing").

[25] In February 1914 Dalley was described as "a carefully tailored little man [who] is a social favourite", combining "the role of man-about-town and sub-editor of the 'Bulletin' with great dexterity".

Ward proposed that Dalley provide the text and scenes, to which a producer could introduce "ballets, choruses, and other special turns", with the object of staging the revue if it proved suitable.

Shortly afterwards Ward informed Dalley that the J. C. Williamson company had purchased the performing rights of a London revue entitled 'Come Over Here', intending to stage it in Sydney.

After "Come Over Here' opened at the Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney on 20 December 1913 it became apparent to the two writers that the company had inserted sections from their own revue into the production, thereby "substantially and materially" plagiarising their work.

In March 1916 Dalley was transferred to the 5th Divisional Artillery, based at Tell El Kebir in Egypt, but soon afterwards the medical board recommended his discharge from the army as permanently unfit because of his deafness.

[31] In Australia, Dalley "made a strong personal appeal to the Government" to reverse the decision that he was unsuitable for war service due to his deafness.

The commander of the 6th Brigade, Colonel Harold Cohen, later recounted that Dalley, who was older than his fellow officers, "had a mature mind and an independence of spirit which did not easily accommodate themselves to military surroundings and routine", though he was able to "practise self-discipline".

[33][32] During his military service, Dalley contributed to Aussie: The Australian Soldiers' Magazine, printed in the field on the Western Front during World War One.

[1] On 7 May 1919, John Dalley married Sarah Ann Sharpe (née Bright), a New Zealand-born divorcee who managed a costume business.

[41] In December 1924, the revitalised Melbourne Punch, acquired by The Herald and Weekly Times newspaper group, was launched with Dalley as the editor.

The newspaper had an expanded format and a new cohort of literary and artistic staff-members including Percy Leason (chief cartoonist) and the writers Hugh McCrae and Kenneth Slessor.

[45] As editor, Dalley was willing to give Dyson full freedom to express himself, but the proprietors of the journal exerted pressure to limit his social and political satire.

Eventually "Dyson was edged from his special field into the production of pleasant comic drawings, and he finally accepted this role of entertainer with a wry resignation".

[51] Dalley's writing style was described as belonging "to a literary half-world, the territory between the fringes of journalism and literature", a rarity "in the factory-made atmosphere of modern newspapers".

The novel's synopsis was described as "a masterly account of the incompatibility of the self-made millionaire with his English wife of a noble family: social life on board ship: and the seamy side of journalism in an Australian suburban village".

The synopsis was described as: "The story of a self-made Australian, who starts life in Sydney as a clerk, and ends as a multi-millionaire, which deals convincingly with his relations with the Mother Country, and the problem of his children, brought up in England, and given an entirely different outlook and environment from his own".

[61][62] Dalley's published novels, drawing upon his own experiences, took a distinctly sardonic view of upper-class Sydney society and the English aristocracy.

[32] His wife and child were spending the weekend at Kurrajong, on the lower slopes of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, with Dalley intending to join them later.