Born on 18 October 1875, son of Captain Arthur William Markham Carter of the 25th Native Infantry and Rosalie Edmunds Bradley, Robert Markham Carter was educated at Epsom where he played in the fifteen. He then studied medicine at St George's and St Bartholomew's Hospitals and in Paris. He took the MRCS and LRCP in 1901 and entered the Indian Medical Service on 29 January 1902 as medical officer to the 1st Bombay Lancers. From 1903 to 1904 he was attached to the Anglo-Turkish Boundary Commission in the Aden interior. During leave in Britain in 1904 he carried out research work in several laboratories. On his return to India, then a Captain, he was posted to the North-West Frontier, where in the Zakka Khel expedition of 1908 he was severely wounded. He was awarded the medal with clasp. After this Carter was transferred to the civil side of the Service and his first posting was at the Pasteur Institute, Kasauli where his previous research experience was useful, but he wished to devote his life to clinical work so in 1911 he went to St George's Hospital, Bombay as resident surgeon. He obtained the FRCS in 1912 and was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy at the Grant Medical College in that year. In 1913 Carter became Second Presidency Surgeon, and 2nd Physician at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Hospital, Bombay, and the following year he was appointed Third Presidency Surgeon, Professor of Pathology and Morbid Anatomy, and Curator of the Museum of the Grant Medical College, Bombay. With the outbreak of the first world war Carter was recalled to military duty and placed in medical charge of the Varela. This hospital ship was sent to Basra to evacuate casualties from the defeat at Ctesiphon. The many sick and wounded were transported in barges along the tortuous river Tigris; Carter was profoundly shocked by their condition on arrival and said so. This criticism led to a succession of stormy interviews in which Carter was accused of being meddlesome and interfering, but he was not intimidated by threats of arrest and loss of his career. He insisted on a personal interview with the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir John Nixon. The result is recorded in the report of the Mesopotamian Commission, which contains these words: "Carter by his persistence brought to the notice of his superiors the terrible condition of the wounded when they arrived at Basra after Ctesiphon, and in other ways he revealed shortcomings which might have been ignored and left unremedied. His sense of duty seems to be most commendable, and he was fertile and resourceful in suggesting remedies." In April 1916 Carter was sent to the India Office in Whitehall to organise medical equipment for the Mesopotamian expedition; when the War Office took over the operations Carter was transferred there and was made responsible for the complete fitting out of the hospital ships. He organised a river hospital fleet, a water-post system and purification plant, an ice-making fleet and refrigerator barges. He was thrice mentioned in dispatches, and given the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel on 26 April 1916. In 1918 Carter was appointed CB and placed on special duty under the Controller-General of Merchant Shipping. He did valuable work for the Admiralty as medical supervisor of labour and housing. After the war he returned to his civil career in Bombay, as first Physician at the JJ Hospital and Professor at the Grant Medical College. In 1925 he was appointed First Presidency Surgeon, and consulting physician to the European General Hospital, Bombay. He retired in 1927 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He married Kate Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Michie Saunderson; they had one son and three daughters. He died on 13 March 1961 at his home, Paddock Cottage, Ascot, Berkshire at the age of 85. Mrs Carter died there on 30 April 1965 aged 86.