Born at Perry Hall, Bromsgrove, on 16 January 1864, the third son and fifth of the seven children of Edward Housman, solicitor, and Sarah Jane Williams, his wife. He was educated at Bromsgrove School and at Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, where he was house physician and house surgeon. He then acted as surgeon to the Stockport Infirmary from 6 March 1895 until 1908, when he resigned on his appointment as assistant medical officer of health to the Worcestershire County Council. He was gazetted temporary captain, RAMC, on 16 October 1916 and was demobilized in 1919 having attained the rank of major. He married Jane Dixon on 24 July 1894, who survived him but without children. He died on 1 December 1932 at the Lower House, Tardebigge, and was buried in the churchyard of the village. Housman did his work well and conscientiously. His elder brother, Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936), was professor of Latin at Cambridge from 1911, and was well-known as the author of *A Shropshire Lad*; his younger brother, Laurence, is the distinguished author and artist.