Grainger opened an anatomical school in Webb Street, Southwark, London in 1819 after his offer to teach at Guy's Hospital was rejected.
After receiving medical instruction from his father, he entered as a student at the united hospitals of St. Thomas's and Guy's in October 1816.
He was a dresser to Sir Astley Cooper, who advised him to open an anatomical school in Birmingham after he had become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
In the autumn of 1819, he moved to a location close to Guy's in Webb Street, Maze Pond, in a building had been used as a Roman Catholic chapel.
[1] Grainger died from consumption at his father's house in Birmingham, on 13 January 1824, having not quite completed his twenty-seventh year.