Born in London, 24 July 1900, the second child and only son of Henry Halifax Wells and Catharine Elmes, his wife. He was educated at Elston School, Bedford, and at Trent College, Nottingham. He received his medical training at Charing Cross Hospital, where he served as resident casualty officer, house surgeon, and surgical registrar. He was also surgical registrar at All Saints Hospital for Genito-Urinary Diseases. Wells worked for a few years in Birmingham, but settled at Sanderstead, Surrey, in 1932 in partnership with John Black Stevenson, MC, MB, and Robert Charles Parry, MRCS, and became consulting surgeon to Purley Memorial Hospital. He was a sound general surgeon, of marked technical ability, and in personal relationships courteous, sincere, and kind. Owing to his ill-health he was refused for active war service in 1939. Wells married in 1944 Mary Lancaster Marsh, MRCS, LRCP, who survived him with an adopted son. He died at Wilcott, Sanderstead Road, Sanderstead, on 2 September 1949, aged 49.