Born on 21 May 1873 second child and only son of Thomas Headland Gordon-Wilson and his wife née Kelly, he was educated at Highgate School, and won an entrance scholarship in science to the London Hospital. At his qualification he took honours in forensic medicine in 1897. He served as senior house surgeon at Poplar Hospital, and was resident acchoucheur and senior clinical assistant in the nose throat and ear department at the London Hospital. He then settled in practise in South Kensington, and became physician to the Kensington Dispensary and Children's Hospital. Gordon-Wilson married in 1918 Eve Smith, who survived him with their two sons Dr Clifford Gordon-Wilson MRCP and Mr Maurice Gordon-Wilson. He died at 51 Queen's Gate Gardens, London SW7 on 13 April 1952 aged 78.