Came of an old Warwickshire family of farmers and doctors, being a grandson of W L Freer, of Stourbridge. He was educated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. He was House Surgeon at the General Hospital, Birmingham, from 1842-1848, and acted as Demonstrator of Anatomy at Queen's College. He then settled in general practice at 141 Great Charles Street, Birmingham, and became Surgeon to the General Dispensary and to the Orthopaedic Hospital, from both of which he had retired before 1863. He was living in Soho Hill, Handsworth, in 1871, and practised in Newhall Street. He finally moved to 11 Lancaster Road, Harrogate, where he died in 1910 or 1911.