He was born in Ealing near London. He studied medicine in 1841 at Charing Cross Hospital and received his medical degree from the University of London in 1845 and was admitted to the Royal College of Surgeons.

In 1846 he entered the Royal Navy as assistant surgeon. He studied the surface fauna of Australasian waters mostly jellyfishes leading to the recognition, under the Linnaean system of classification of the zoological class Hydrozoa.