Self-taught sculptor in metal who scorned art schools, born and worked in Liverpool. Big Arthur, as he was known, was a Liverpudlian character who applied to be town planner because he was against a tower block city, helped reform the Liverpool Academy, being its chairman, and campaigned to revive the South Docks. After leaving school at 14 Dooley served on Mersey tugboats and was also to work on the Ark Royal in Cammell Laird’s shipyard, important to his development as a sculptor. He joined the Irish Guards playing as a bagpiper; went absent without leave and served as a colonel with the Palestine Liberation Organization; and was jailed for his absence, in prison experimenting with sculpture. Back in London he joined a drawing class at Whitechapel Art Gallery, worked as a janitor and part-time model at St Martin’s School of Art and eventually returned to Liverpool where a time working for Dunlop’s at Speke helped him refine his sculptural technique.