Rawlinson was born at Combe, Hampshire, the second son of police magistrate John Rawlinson (1777/8–1847) of New Place, Alresford, and of Clatford and Combe, Hampshire, by his wife Felicia, daughter of Thomas Watson, of Haydon Hall, Middlesex.
[2] In 1849 he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras, and held that position till his retirement in 1859.
On 27 May 1847 he had married Georgina Maria, younger daughter of Alexander Radclyffe Sidebottom, barrister, by whom he had three sons—Christopher (b.
1850), Albemarle Alexander, late major 8th hussars, John Frederick Peel—and one daughter.
His nephew by marriage was William Melmoth Walters, whose daughter Gertrude married Rawlinson's nephew[3] Thomas Arthur Rawlinson and was mother of the screenwriter and film producer A. R.