Born in Lincolnshire, the son of a medical man, he was educated at St Mary's Hospital. Entered the school in 1866, won a prize in 1867, and became Prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons, House Surgeon at St Mary's, and afterwards at the South Devon and East Cornwall Hospital, Plymouth. Admitted FRCS in 1873 and joined his brother, James G Anderson, who was in practice in Tobago, acting as colonial surgeon. By 1889 he was a member of the Legislature, a Justice of the Peace for the Islands, and a landowner. In this year he was consulted by a native woman suffering from necrosis of the lower jaw. The patient and her husband proved troublesome and Anderson declined further attendance. Litigation followed, and Anderson was finally imprisoned by Justices Corrie and Cook for fourteen days in default of finding bail. In 1891 Anderson brought an action in London ("Anderson v Corrie and others") and obtained a verdict in his favour with £500 damages against Mr Justice Cook (Justice Corrie having died). Lord Esher on appeal decided that no action could lie against a judge for an act done in his judicial capacity, and refused to award damages, though he confirmed the verdict of the jury. The rest of Anderson's life was spent in a campaign against the wrongs and injustice done to the medical profession, and he strove to advance his cause by acting as Hon Secretary of the Corporate and Medical Reform Association. This labour and the disappointments no doubt shortened his life, for he died of angina pectoris, in straitened circumstances, at 82 Montague Place, Russell Square, on Sept 8th, 1900, and was buried at the Lambeth Cemetery, near Balham.