Born at West End House, Hampstead. His father, a cloth-merchant, afterwards resided in Milk Street, BC. In infancy he suffered from infantile paralysis and was consequently lamed for life. He was apprenticed to George Chapman, of Liverpool, saw severe work among cholera patients on ships in the port

Educated at the London Hospital and practised in Theobald's Road, and then at 33 Great James' Street, Bedford Row, WC, where he was Medical Referee to the Merchants' and Tradesmen's Insurance Company. Later Wykeham Lydall was associated with him in partnership. He finally practised at 11 Well Road,