Born at Kendal, 18 October 1862, the fifth child of William Musgrove, draper, and Ruth Stramon, his wife. He was educated at Edinburgh, where he was house surgeon to John Chiene at the Royal Infirmary and demonstrator of anatomy under Sir William Turner at the University. In 1896 he was appointed lecturer on anatomy at the newly instituted Colleges of St Andrews University. Here he equipped and furnished a laboratory and, when the third Marquess of Bute erected a permanent building for his department and endowed a chair of anatomy, Musgrove was appointed the first professor of anatomy. He held the post from 1901 to 1914, when he resigned on grounds of health and was succeeded by David Waterston. He married Elsie, widow of Professor Bell Pettigrew, in 1911; she was the second daughter of Sir William Gray, and survived him but without children. He and Mrs Musgrove presented to St Andrews University a magnificently furnished museum in memory of James Bell Pettigrew, professor of medicine from 1875, who died in 1908. The presentation was made on the occasion of the quincentenary of the University in 1911. He died at the Swallowgate, St Andrews, Fife on 6 February 1935, and was buried in the Eastern cemetery, St Andrews. He taught well and successfully, was artistic and a good dissector.