Charles Joseph Patten was born in 1870, in Ballybrack, County Dublin.

After that, he joined the staff of Daniel John Cunningham at Trinity College as demonstrator of anatomy.

In 1901 he became professor of anatomy at the University College of Sheffield, as the successor of Christopher Addison.

de Vismes Kane, the President of the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, in his Presidential Address of January 1902, said: Patten's "appointment to the Chair of Anatomy at Sheffield deprives us of one of our most promising members.

He observed birds as a naturalist, rather than as an anatomist, and was interested in their habits, their nesting, and their migration.