The son of Griffith Cullingworth, a bookseller, and his wife Sarah Gledhill of Eddercliff, he was born on 3 June 1841 in Leeds.
[1] In 1873 Cullingworth began specialist work, on being appointed honorary surgeon to Saint Mary's Hospital, Manchester for women and children.
On moving to London he was appointed visiting physician to the General Lying-in Hospital, York Road.
In 1887 he was elected a fellow, and in 1902 he was the first obstetric physician to read the Bradshaw lecture, on Intraperitoneal hæmorrhage incident to ectopic gestation.
[1] During his later years Cullingworth suffered from angina pectoris, but continued his work till his death in London on 11 May 1908.
[1] Cullingworth did his major professional work on the causation of pelvic peritonitis, which he maintained was secondary to other conditions, and not a primary disease.
On this subject he wrote Clinical Illustrations of the Diseases of the Fallopian Tubes and of Tubal Gestation, a series of drawings with descriptive text and histories of the cases (1895; 3rd edition 1902), and an article on pelvic inflammation for Clifford Allbutt, William Smoult Playfair and Thomas Watts Eden's System of Gynæcology.
He was one of the founders of the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynæcology of the British Empire, contributed some papers to it, and during the last two years of his life was its editor.