Born at Hyde, near Manchester, and was educated at the Manchester Grammar School and at Owens College. He was not intended originally for medicine and did not begin his medical studies until 1876. He did brilliantly at Owens College, and at the University of London he gained honours in physiology and histology at the Intermediate MB examination; the University Scholarship and Gold Medal in Forensic Medicine at the final; and the University Scholarship and Gold Medal in Surgery at the BS examination. He acted as House Surgeon to Professor Tom Jones at the Manchester Infirmary, and became Assistant to Professor Morrison Watson in the Anatomical Department, Owens College, where he carried on the work for some time after the death of his chief, lecturing also on Dental Anatomy. He filled the posts of Resident Surgical Officer and Surgical Registrar at the Infirmary before he began to practise privately. For fifteen years from 1888 he filled the office of Surgeon to the Pendlebury Hospital for Children and was appointed Consulting Surgeon upon his resignation. He was also Visiting Surgeon to the Manchester Workhouse Infirmary at Crumpsall and Medical Officer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. He was elected Assistant Surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary in 1899, becoming Surgeon, and Lecturer on Practical Surgery at Owens College, in 1900. He served as President of the Manchester Medical Society and President of the Manchester Pathological Society. He practised at 157 High Street, Oxford Road, and at Central Chambers, Brazennose Street, Albert Square, Manchester. He married Maud Tessimond Windsor, daughter of William Tessimond Windsor, of Manchester. There were three children of the marriage - John, killed in a flying accident in Spain; Doris, who graduated in medicine at Cambridge; and Donald, who was at school. Collier died on Oct 13th, 1905, and was buried in the Southern Cemetery, Manchester. Joseph Collier was remarkable as an athlete and as a mountaineer. He was an admirable football player, and later in life became an expert in golf, being captain of the Manchester Golf Club. He was a member of the Alpine Club and was a first-rate rock climber. He knew the Lake Country thoroughly, was the first to climb the whole length of Moss Ghyll, and the only man who at the time of his death had ever climbed Piers Ghyll. He also climbed the oblique chimney on the Great Gable, and was one of the party on the last day of December, 1883, when Professor Milnes Marshall, FRS, was killed by an accidental fall. He was familiar with the Alps, the Dolomites, and the Caucasus, and was President of the Manchester Section of the German-Austrian Alpine Club and of the Manchester Rucksack Club. He was an active officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps (Volunteers). Joseph Collier was a good surgeon, full of resource, and seen at his best when he was suddenly faced with unexpected conditions in the course of an operation. Publications: "Traumatic Hysteria in the Male." - *Med. Chronicle*, 1888, viii, 80. "Tracheotomy." - *Lancet*, 1888, ii, 1227. "Symmetrical Gangrene." - *Med. Chronicle*, 1889, 393.