Was apprenticed to his father, Dr John Bryant, for many years a successful practitioner in the Edgware Road. He was entered as a student at University College Hospital in 1834, where he studied under Liston, Samuel Cooper, Jones Quain, and Elliotson, and among his fellow-students were Richard Quain, Morton, Erichsen, and W Wood. He was House Surgeon under Liston, with whom he formed a strong and enduring friendship. He married in 1840 the daughter of Major Parris, entered into partnership with his father, and on the retirement of the latter in 1843 moved to Sussex Square, where he acquired a large and remunerative practice. Bred up in the old school, he had great faith in the value of drug treatment, whilst leaving no stone unturned to benefit his patient in every other direction. His ingenuity in contriving means of relieving pain, and in the general management of the sick-room, was of striking value to him. At the bedside he was always cheerful and optimistic, and socially he made his mark as a well-informed man possessed of a fund of anecdote. He was especially successful as an obstetrician and in the care of children, but unfortunately has left no records of his great experience. He withdrew from practice little by little, and about the year 1870 took up his residence at a house which he had built at Burghfield, near Reading. He came up to town thenceforward three or four times a week in order to see patients. He suffered from chronic cystitis, and in March, 1888, developed senile gangrene. He died on May 14th, 1888, leaving a widow and six children, of whom the eldest, John Henry Bryant, MRCS, was at the time Medical Officer of Health in Gibraltar. Walter John Bryant's addresses were 23a Sussex Square, and High Woods, Burghfield Hill, Reading. At the time of his death he was Hon Local Secretary of the Medical Benevolent College and Medical Officer of the Great Western Hotel, and was for some years Consulting Physician to the Home for Incurable Children, Maida Vale, as well as Surgeon Major to the Royal Bucks Yeomanry.