Born at Letheringham in 1820, and received his education at Ipswich and his medical training at University College, London. He was for a short time House Surgeon to the East Suffolk General Hospital at Ipswich, and in 1844 he settled in practice in Guildhall Street, Bury St Edmunds, where he resided for more than fifty years. His skill, and the care he took of his patients, increased his local reputation; he was soon placed on the staff of the Suffolk General Hospital at Bury and was connected with that institution for forty years, till as Senior Surgeon he resigned in 1894 and became Consulting Medical Officer. He was for some thirty years Surgeon to the West Suffolk Militia, having joined the regiment as Assistant Surgeon on its formation, and retiring as Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel. He was a Churchwarden of St Mary's Church, and was long connected with the Bury and West Suffolk Library and the local Friendly Societies. He was at one time President of the combined East Anglian, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire Branches of the British Medical Association. His death occurred somewhat unexpectedly on October 18th, 1896. In 1845 he married Miss Scott, and the fiftieth anniversary of the wedding had not long been celebrated when he died. Of his three sons, two were in the medical profession at the time of his death, Charles Scott Kilner, MB, being then in partnership with him.