Wadley was born in Chelsea to Lieutenant Colonel Neville Pierce Wadley, MC, and Anne, daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Hautayne Bowring, Royal Field Artillery, of a landed gentry family of Larkbeare, Exeter descended from Sir John Bowring, fourth Governor of Hong Kong. Anne's maternal grandfather was Sir Robert Colleton, 9th Baronet.Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage, Kelly's Directories, p. 1439Burke's Landed Gentry, 18th edition, vol. 3, ed. Peter Townend, Burke's Peerage LtdVisitation of England and Wales, vol. 20, ed. Frederick Arthur Crisp, 1919, p. 8
