Educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital, where he gained the junior and senior scholarships. He graduated brilliantly at the University of London and was awarded the gold medal at the first MB examination. He then began to practise in Norwich and was appointed to the Norfolk and Norwich Eye Infirmary and to the Jenny Lind Hospital for Children at the end of 1878 or the beginning of 1879. He failed to get upon the permanent staff of either hospital, and having married a charming wife, with a lovely contralto voice, became madly jealous of her without cause. His mind being unsettled, he threw up his practice in Norwich and migrated to Gravesend, where he was appointed surgeon to the Gravesend and North Kent Hospital on 4 July 1883, becoming consulting surgeon on his retirement on 18 May 1914. He then retired to St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, where he died on 17 March 1931. Mrs Firth outlived him, and died on 8 September 1943.