Born at Yoxford, Suffolk, the son of a local surgeon. After education at the North Walsham Grammar School he was apprenticed to a leading practitioner at Banbury. He entered St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1858, where he was looked upon as one of the best men of his year and earned the favourable notice of Sir George Burrows and Dr Baly, in whose wards he was an assiduous worker. After qualification he became Resident Medical Officer at the Victoria Park Hospital, where he spent nearly three years studying, with Mr. Peacock and Sir Risdon Bennett, the diseases of the heart and lungs. He next went, on Sir James Paget's recommendation, to Croydon as assistant to Dr Carpenter and Mr Whitling, and here he remained for the remainder of his life. He rapidly gained a prominent position. He was elected Surgeon to the Croydon Hospital and became connected with many of the local charitable and other institutions. He was Surgeon to the 2nd Surrey Volunteer Corps, and took a leading part as founder in the affairs of the South-Eastern Branch of the British Medical Association, acting as Hon Secretary for some years and performing his unpaid duties so well that he was presented with a handsome clock on his retirement, Sir George Burrows making a charming speech on the occasion. In 1878 he was elected President of his branch, and was regarded by the Association as one of the chief factors in its local progress. Lanchester was a Member of the Council of the Medical Benevolent College, Epsom, and Chairman of the new Alfred Wing Committee of the Croydon Hospital. He was immersed in work of public utility. He was Vice-Chairman of the Croydon Liberal Association, and a zealous member of the School Board. He was returned at the head of the poll in 1883, and was soon made Vice-Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Financial Committee, in which latter capacity he won a high reputation for knowledge of finance. Returning from a meeting of the Committee of the Whitgift Foundation, of which he was a Governor, he caught a chill and died in less than a week of acute pneumonia, at his residence, Park House, Park Lane, Croydon, on January 8th, 1885. He had never enjoyed robust health, despite his almost over-strenuous life. He left a widow and five children. Mrs Lanchester, whom he had married in 1872, was the only daughter of Mr Page, of Lincoln.