The son of Dr William Prowse, and grandson of Dr James Prowse, who practised at Amersham, Bucks. He went to Amersham College, near Reading, then to the Liverpool School of Medicine, and after that to St Mary's Hospital, London, where he was Scholar in Anatomy. He was next House Surgeon at the Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital, and then Resident Medical Officer at the London Fever Hospital. In 1883 he was appointed Assistant Physician, and in 1888 Physician, to the Bristol Royal Infirmary, and retired as Consulting Physician in 1919. He lectured for seventeen years on pharmacy, pharmacology, and therapeutics in the Bristol Medical School; was Secretary to the Bristol Nature Society; Financial Secretary in the organization of the Bristol Meeting of the British Medical Association in 1894; and Officer in Command of the 2nd South General Hospital, Bristol, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel RAMC (T). He practised at 5 Lansdowne Place, Clifton, and died there on April 26th, 1925.