Tucked into the Peace Country of northern Alberta, Wembley sits roughly 23 kilometres west of Grande Prairie at the crossroads of Highway 43 and Highway 724. The area was first surveyed for homesteads in 1909, with settlers beginning to arrive the following year. The community’s origins are closely tied to the nearby hamlet of Lake Saskatoon, located about four and a half miles to the north. When the railway reached the region in 1924 after a survey completed from Grande Prairie to Pouce Coupe in 1916, many buildings from Lake Saskatoon were physically hauled across snow-covered trails to new foundations in the freshly surveyed townsite. The post office opened in November of that same year, with R.B. Sinclair serving as the first postmaster. Wembley takes its name from Wembley in England, chosen by the Lake Saskatoon Board of Trade to honour the British Empire Exposition being held there at the time.
Wembley achieved village status on January 3, 1928, and was elevated to town status on August 1, 1980. According to the 2021 federal census, the town had a population of 1,432 residents living in 550 of its 616 private dwellings, reflecting a modest decline of 5.5% from the 2016 count of 1,516. This followed a period of growth, as the 2016 figure itself represented a 9.6% increase over the 2011 population of 1,383. The town covers a land area of 4.74 square kilometres, giving it a population density of approximately 302 people per square kilometre.