He was born in Bromsgrove on 24 August 1864, the son of a bank manager. He was educated at Bromsgrove School then Mason Science College in Birmingham (where he was the first geological pupil under Charles Lapworth) and then the Royal College of Science in London. From 1889 to 1891 he did geological work in South Africa in the Rand goldfields and from 1891 to 1893 worked in East Africa.
