Lee started his medical education at King's College in 1833, transferring to St George's Hospital in the following year,[3] later becoming one of its first surgical registrars.

Lee had a long connection with the Royal College of Surgeons, having been awarded its Jacksonian Prize in 1849 with his dissertation on the Causes, Consequences and Treatment of Purulent Deposits.

He was a member of the Council between 1870 and 1878, and in 1875 delivered the Museum Lectures on Surgery and Pathology as Hunterian Professor, his subject being "Syphilis and Local Diseases affecting principally the Organs of Generation".

[1] Lee retired in 1878, at the age of 60 and lived a further twenty years, dying at his home, 61 Queensborough Terrace, Hyde Park, on 11 June 1898.

He was twice married, firstly to Anne Elizabeth Ellaby and in 1877 to Marion Hutchinson who survived him, as did his three daughters of both marriages, though his only son predeceased him.