George was born in Somers Town to James Edward Waterhouse and Mary Newman.

Part of the work was in designing the garden of Charles Knight in the Vale of Health, Hampstead and the ornamentation for St. Dunstan's Church.

The Royal Institution at Liverpool appointed him curator of its museum in 1835 and he exchanged this in 1836 for a position at the Zoological Society of London.

The work was begun in 1844 was done slowly as the original French publisher M. Hippolyte Baillière was unable to take it up.

Amongst the numerous species he described are the numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus), and the Syrian or golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus).