Harold Francis Riley, born December 21, 1934 in Salford, Lancashire, England, befriended the artist, L.S. Lowry (1887–1976), when he was 11 years old.


It is reported in the Daily Mail newspaper review that “Nobody knew Lowry better than artist Harold Riley.” Lowry awarded Riley his first art prize at a Salford Grammar School art exhibition in 1945.


Lowry helped Riley sell his first artwork to Albert Frape, the curator at the Salford (City) Art Gallery school in 1945. Referred to as both “Lowry’s protégé” and his “partner in mischief,” on the eve of Lowry’s retrospective at the Tate in 1976, Riley states, “‘It was the first picture I sold and Lowry was responsible… he had an immense kindness.’”

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