Born 8 February 1871 at Cemarques, High Street, Deal, Kent, the eighth child and fourth son of Frederick Thomas Hulke, FRCS, and Charlotte Backhouse, his wife. He was educated at Dover College and at the Middlesex Hospital, where his uncle John Whitaker Hulke, FRCS, was surgeon. He acted as apothecary and house surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1895, and afterwards filled the offices of house surgeon and surgical registrar at the Middlesex Hospital. Called to take part in the family practice, he spent the whole of his professional life in Deal. He was medical officer and public vaccinator for the Walmer district of the Eastry Union and medical officer to the Post Office. He married (1) in 1901 Irene Beatrice Hawkins, daughter of Major-General E Lindsay Hawkins; she died on 7 July 1935, leaving him with two daughters, Beatrice Sydney and Muriel Sydney, who was admitted FRCS and became Mrs Brander; (2) in 1938 Marjorie Kemp-Hall, who survived him with a daughter. He retired from practice in July 1936, lived at 21 Platt's Lane, Hampstead, NW3, and died at 127 High Street, Hungerford on 10 June 1939. He was buried at Old St Mary's Church, Upper Walmer. Hulke belonged to a medical family with an unusually long history. They were driven from the Low Countries by the persecution of the Duke of Alva and settled in Kent. Sydney Backhouse Hulke was a member of the tenth generation to practise medicine, while his great-nephew, Frederick Hulke, MRCS 1943, represents the twelfth generation. In the last five generations there have been several members of the family holding the diploma of FRCS.