He was a specialist in the history and politics of East Africa about which he wrote a number of books.
He was educated at Nottingham High School, before being evacuated to Salcombe during the Second World War, where he was privately taught.
Furley began teaching as a junior professor at the University of St Andrews.
He also taught for many years at Makerere University in Uganda before he was forced to leave with his family by Idi Amin's regime in 1972.
Until shortly before his death, long after his official retirement, he was a visiting professor at Coventry.