He was the son of Major-general Henry Bristow, a member of a Wiltshire family, and his wife Elizabeth Atchorne of High Wycombe.
After passing with distinction through King's College, London, he joined the staff of the Geological Survey in 1842, and was set to work in Radnorshire.
From this county he was shortly afterwards transferred to the Cotteswold district, which he examined up to Bath, and afterwards surveyed a large part of Dorset, Wiltshire, and Hampshire, with the Isle of Wight, besides some of the Wealden area, Berkshire, and Essex, rising ultimately in 1872 to the position of director for England and Wales.
His field work was admirable in quality, for he was no less patient than accurate in unravelling a complicated district — one of those men, in short, who lay the foundations on which his successors can build, and whose services to British geology are more lasting than showy.
His separate papers are few in number — about eight — and during his later years he suffered from deafness, which prevented him from taking part in the business of societies.
Underground Life (translation, with additions of La Vie Souterraine, by L. Simonin), 1869.