Born on 23 June 1901 in New Amsterdam, British Guiana, he was the son of William George Boase, MRCS, LRCP. He was educated at Mount St Mary's, a Jesuit college in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and St Thomas's Hospital, London, where he was influenced by the late Philip Mitchiner, then resident assistant surgeon. He qualified MRCS, LRCP in 1923, and in 1924 he joined the Colonial Medical Service, serving in Uganda until 1956. He specialised in ophthalmology, combining this with the duties of a general medical officer until 1945, when he was gazetted senior specialist ophthalmologist. In 1929, he was married to Alice Mary, daughter of Sir Charles Griffin, QC. He was President of the East African Association of Surgeons and President of the Uganda branch of the BMA. He retired from Uganda in 1956 and became warden at the Ophthalmic Hospital of the Order of St John, in Jerusalem where he stayed until 1969 when he retired to Uckfield, Sussex. He died on 31 January 1986, in his 85th year. There were five daughters and five sons of his marriage. Two of the children pre-deceased him, two daughters became nurses and one son is a consultant ophthalmologist.