Born and apprenticed at Ipswich. He studied at University College Hospital. Although qualified, he joined Sir de Lacy Evans's 2nd Lancers in the campaign of the Queen of Spain against Don Carlos, where, according to his own account, he learnt more surgery on the battlefields than he learnt at the Medical School. He was severely wounded by a bullet in the chest, returned home and settled in practice at Darlington in 1841. This town, then small, was the medical centre of a wide district, and the hospital had a staff of surgeons - Strother, Haslewood, Jackson - whose names are remembered. Piper also became Surgeon to the Hospital, and at one time was President of the North of England Branch of the British Medical Association. A fine type of man and much respected, he retained his health until a few years before his death on August 24th, 1894.