Was one of the first pupils of Henry Clark (qv) at Bristol in his newly opened 'Theatre of Anatomy' in 1826, when there were only seven or eight in the class. He went afterwards to St Bartholomew's Hospital, and, returning to Bristol, lectured for many years on surgery and descriptive anatomy at what had become the Bristol Medical School, formed by the amalgamation of Shute's with Clark's 'Theatre of Anatomy'. Colthurst practised at 11 The Mall, Clifton, and was Surgeon and later Consulting Surgeon to the Clifton Dispensary. He died at Chew Magna on October 18th, 1895, his death being reported by Miss Colthurst.