Born 26 September 1866 at King Street, Carmarthen, the thirteenth child and fifth son of William Spurrell and his wife Sarah Walters. William Spurrell was a printer and publisher, and an author in English and Welsh; his Welsh dictionary is an accepted authority. Charles Spurrell was educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Carmarthen, and apprenticed at the Carmarthen Infirmary to James Rowlands, before entering Guy's Hospital Medical School. He served as house surgeon and resident medical officer at Guy's, having qualified in 1890. He was senior assistant medical officer at the Eastern Fever Hospital under the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and medical superintendent of St Andrew's Hospital, Bow. He practised throughout his career in the borough of Poplar. After retiring he returned to Carmarthen and devoted himself to his literary tastes. He was a man of considerable literary and historical cultivation, and an amateur of music. His fine bookplate is in the College collection: it shows his library at Carmarthen with a view, through the window, of the Vale of Towy; a printed explanation, which he wrote, records the many literary associations of the district with Spenser, Dyer, Jeremy Taylor, etc. Spurrell never married. He died at Fro Wen, Carmarthen on 26 January 1949, aged 82.