Born at Brighton on 5 July 1874, he was educated privately, then at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital. Qualifying in 1898 he became house surgeon at Wolverhampton General Hospital and the Royal County Hospital, Winchester, and ophthalmic house surgeon to B J Vernon and W H H Jessop at St Bartholomew's Hospital. From 1902 to 1908 he was in general practice at Bournemouth, but after obtaining his Fellowship in 1909 he turned entirely to ophthalmic surgery, serving as house surgeon to E W Brewerton at the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital at the age of thirty-six and later holding appointments at the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital, and the Royal Eye Hospital where he was appointed surgeon in 1915. Other posts to which he was appointed included that of ophthalmic surgeon to the Tottenham Education Committee and the Western General Dispensary in 1912, the Hampstead General Hospital in 1913, and the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in 1914. At the Royal Eye Hospital he was an inspiring surgeon and teacher, kind and considerate to everyone, retaining his boyish approach in old age. He took his MD at the age of 73 in order to keep his son company when the latter took his MA. After retiring in 1934, he continued as an honorary clinical assistant until 1937. He lived at Surbiton from 1911 onwards, and in 1923-24 he was chairman of the Kingston-upon-Thames Division of the BMA. He had a patriarchal white beard and twinkling eyes behind gold-rimmed spectacles, was fluent in French, German and Latin, was a skilled mathematician, inventing the rotary prism, and in his leisure hours a skilful chess player representing the county of Surrey. In 1903 he married Ethel Kate, eldest daughter of Ederic Worth of Bournemouth, and she died on 14 December 1951. They had two sons, the elder of whom was in the winning Cambridge crews of 1927 and 1928. He himself died after an operation on 22 July 1954 aged 80.