John Ernest Price Watts of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, passed the Conjoint Examination in 1911, and in 1913 the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He worked at the Westminster, King's College London, and St Bartholomew's Hospitals. He was medical officer and later consultant surgeon

Born 3 December 1882 the second of three brothers he was educated at Harrow and King's College, Cambridge, where he was a scholar and was placed in the first division of the second class in the Classical Tripos, part I, 1905. He rowed for his college and was captain of the University swimming team.