Born on 5 December 1876 at Plympton, South Australia, fourth son of William Harper Formby, of Formby Hall, Lancashire and Longhouse Creek, South Australia, and his wife Eleanor Elizabeth White, he was educated at Hahndorf and Prince Alfred Colleges, Adelaide, and at the Universities of Adelaide and Melbourne. He served in the medical corps in South African during the Boer War, and then went on to England. He practised at Strahalbyn, South Australia from 1904 to 1947, set up the first hospital in the town, and was prominent in local affairs. After retirement he lived at 28 Buxton Street, North Adelaide. He married in 1911 Kate Eleanor Reinecke, who survived him with two sons and a daughter. Two other sons had been killed during the second world war: one in the Australian Air Force and the other, Major R H Formby MD in the Australian Army Medical Corps. He died on 18 January 1956 at Adelaide aged 79. The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons owns a portrait-photograph of Formby.