William Henry Atherton was born on November 15, 1867, in Salford, Lancashire, England.

He was a British-born Canadian writer, historian, academic, and scholar. He was educated at Stonyhurst College, a Roman Catholic school. Upon completing his degree in philosophy and theology, he began his career as a teacher in classics at Stonyhurst College and Beaumont College in Berkshire. In 1907, Atherton emigrated to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to follow his elderly parents. For one year, he taught at a school in Alberta. In 1908, he relocated to Quebec, where he became a faculty member at Loyola College, an anglophone Jesuit college and Collège Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur from 1908 until 1918. In 1918, he became a professor of English literature at the Laval University of Quebec - Montreal annex, which became the University of Montreal, where he remained a faculty member until his retirement in 1948. He also taught at the Marguerite Bourgeoys College. For over twenty years, he served on the examining board for Latin and letters for medical students at McGill University, Laval University, and the Université de Montréal. He was an active member of Montreal's literary community, writing fifty books. He wrote the books “Montreal, 1535-1914” (3 vols., 1914), “Old Montreal in the early days of British Canada, 1778-1788” (1925) and “History of the harbour front of Montréal since its discovery by Jacques Cartier in 1535” (1935). He also edited the four-volume work, “The Storied Province of Quebec” (1931-32) and was responsible for writing the volume on Montreal. Atherton was the first in Canada to give broadcast conferences on literature, history, and social reforms, aired on CFCF, a Montreal radio station from 1945. He was a historian of the British Empire Society, the Canadian Catholic Historical Society, and the Catholic Historical Society of Montreal. Rue Atherton was named in his honour by the City of Montreal in 1955. The Williams H. Atherton Award for Excellence in History is presented on an annual basis at Loyola College.

He died unmarried on July 6, 1950, in Montreal, Quebec.