Born 7 November 1884 at Rochdale, Lancashire; his father was a Primitive Methodist minister. He was educated at Owens College, Manchester, where he served as demonstrator of anatomy, and qualified in 1906. He served as house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary, Manchester, and at the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich. He also studied at the London and St Bartholomew's Hospitals, and served as clinical assistant at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street. He practised for some years at Sheffield, and took the Fellowship in 1913, though not previously a Member of the College. Quine served in the RAMC during the 1914-18 war, having been commissioned as captain on 4 May 1916. He was working at St Luke's Hospital, Old Street, London, EC in 1918, and after the war became a medical officer of the Ministry of Health, a post he held till he retired in 1946. Quine married in 1914 Amy B Davies, who survived him with a son and two daughters; their other son was reported missing while serving in the Royal Air Force during the 1939-45 war. He lived at Benington, Stevenage, Hertfordshire; but after retiring moved to Whitstable, where he died on 22 September 1947, aged 62.