The son or nephew of Richard Ley, MRCS, of South Molton, he was born at North Molton, Devon. He was educated at the London Hospital, where he was house surgeon, and afterwards served as resident surgeon at the Poplar Hospital. Whilst still a student he acted as a prosector at the Royal College of Surgeons. Returning to his native county he became medical superintendent at the Newton Abbot Isolation Hospital and Dispensary. Whilst acting as a guardian he criticized the poor law administration so severely that a Local Government Board inquiry was undertaken. It was shown in the course of the inquiry that not a single trained nurse was employed in any of the poor law infirmaries in the County of Devon and that there was some suspicion that the sick poor were tied down their beds by means of "jumpers" to reduce the need for attendance. The inquiry was followed by drastic reforms, and the guardians became pioneers in the system of boarding out the children from poor law infirmaries. Ley remained a member of the Board and continued to attend the meetings in spite of increasing blindness until he was superseded under the Act of 1929. He died at Newton Abbot, South Devon on 16 May 1933.