Born 18 December 1894 at Witfoot, Middelburg, Transvaal, South Africa, the third of the three sons of Henry Laver, merchant of Middelburg, and his wife, nee Hardiman. Both parents came originally from Southampton. He was educated at Middelburg, at the Bedford Modern School in England, and at Guy's Hospital. During the war he received a commission on 27 February 1915 as second-lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, and was subsequently adjutant and temporary major. He had previously been a member of the Artists' Rifles Volunteer Corps. He returned to Guy's Hospital at the end of the war, qualified, won the Arthur Durham scholarship and served as surgical registrar and assistant surgical tutor. He then settled at Northampton, where he was elected assistant surgeon to the General Hospital on 22 February 1927, becoming surgeon on 28 April 1931. He was also consulting surgeon to the Stamford and Rutland General Infirmary. He married on 21 April 1928 Margaret Joyce Crockett, grand-daughter of Sir James Crockett of Northampton; she survived him with a daughter. He died 28 December 1934 at 1 Cheyne Walk, Northampton; his body was cremated at Leicester and the ashes were buried at Southampton.