Olver was educated at the University of Sydney where he took the Master of Surgery degree in 1922, and held resident appointments at the Royal Prince Alfred, St Vincent's and Mater Hospitals. He then came to St Bartholomew's Hospital, London for postgraduate study, obtained both the Edinburgh and the English Fellowships in 1930, and practised for nearly twenty years in England, a period interrupted by his service in the RAMC during the second world war, when he achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in command of a surgical division. Returning to practice at 29 Devonshire Place, London, he lived at 32 Avenue Road, St John's Wood, and was also a consultant to the London County Council. Olver went home to Australia in the early 1950s, on his appointment as surgeon to the Commonwealth Hospital, Canberra. He died at Sydney in 1972, in his seventies.