Born in Manchester, where his father owned print works. He was apprenticed to Walter Dunlop, of Rochdale, and after graduating in Edinburgh settled in practice in Ardwick by the advice of Sir James Lomax Bardsley, Consulting Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, who had been struck by his pap

Studied at the University of Edinburgh and at University College Hospital, where he was a pupil of Robert Liston. He practised for some forty years at 4 Stanley Terrace, Kensington Park Gardens, where he was Surgeon to the Kensington Dispensary, and at one time Physician to the Soldiers' Daughters'