Sir Percy William Bunting was born on February 1, 1836, in Radcliffe, Lancashire, England.

He was a lawyer, social reformer, and journal editor. He was educated at Owen's College, Manchester and Pembroke College, Cambridge (B.A., 1859). Called to the bar in 1862 at Lincoln's Inn, he gradually acquired a large practice as a conveyancer. In 1882, he was appointed examiner in equity and property law at London University, but grew less active in his profession, finally retiring from practice about 1895. In 1873, he was a founder and a governor of the Leys School at Cambridge. In 1887, with Hugh Price Hughes he was a projector and founder of the West London Mission, of which he acted as treasurer. From an early age, Bunting devoted himself to social reform, political Liberalism, and the welfare of modern Methodism. He was an active promoter of the Forward Movement in Methodism and aimed at the organization of nonconformity as a national religious force. In 1892, the National Free Church Council was founded at his house, and he became secretary of the committee of privileges for Methodism. He became editor of The Contemporary Review and henceforth devoted himself to journalism, also becoming editor of the Methodist Times (1902-1907). He was knighted in 1908.

In 1869, he married Mary Hyett Lidget Bunting (1841–1919). He died on July 22, 1911, in St. Pancras, London, England.