Born 23 May 1869 the youngest of the eleven children of John Farley Rutter, solicitor, of Mere, Wilts, and Hannah Player Tanner, his wife. He was educated at Sidcot School, Winscombe, after which he began his medical studies at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he took the first place in honours at the University of Durham examination for the degree of MB BS. At the London Hospital he served as house surgeon, house physician, and ophthalmic clinical assistant. He then became clinical assistant at the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Nose, Golden Square, and assistant resident medical officer at the London Temperance Hospital. Settling at Mere, he was chairman of the parish council, was school manager, and for twenty-six years was a Justice of the Peace for Wiltshire. He married Alice Kate Pring in September 1897, who survived him with four adopted children, two boys and two girls. He died after an operation at Bristol on 17 July 1932, and was buried at Mere, Wilts. Rutter came of an old Quaker family and remained a member of the Society throughout his life. He was a keen liberal, an active temperance worker, and as became his tenets a pacifist.