Born in London on 19 January 1869, the second child and elder son of James Sydney Walton, a gentleman with private means, and Eleanor Georgina Louissan, his wife. He was educated in Paris for some time, then at private schools, and finally at Charterhouse, 1881-84. He received his medical education

Few records are available of the early years of this distinguished surgeon and pathologist. He trained as an undergraduate at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and held his first postgraduate posts there, but his life-long work as a surgeon was at the Alfred Hospital. He was Beaney Scholar and demonstrat