Born at Bath, Somerset on 1 January 1838, he was eldest of the three children (two sons and a daughter) of Richard Francis George, surgeon, by his wife Elizabeth Brooke.
[1] George was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 6 June 1864, and followed the western circuit till 1867, when he returned to New College as tutor in the combined school of law and history.
He was one of the first members of the Oxford University volunteer corps, and for many years he took an important share in the work of the local examinations delegacy.
[1] George inherited money from his father, and was director of the West of England and South Wales Bank at Bristol, but took no active part in the management of its affairs.
The failure of the bank in 1880 caused him financial losses, and involved him with his fellow-directors in an abortive trial for irregularities in keeping the accounts.
On his first visit to Switzerland in 1860, he met Leslie Stephen at Zermatt and accompanied him up to the Riffel by the Gorner Glacier.
Having spent the night on the rocks of the Schneehorn (3,402 m or 11,161 ft) they gained next morning the Silberlücke, the depression between the Jungfrau and Silberhorn, and thence in little more than three hours reached the summit.
Descending to the Aletsch Glacier they crossed the Mönchsjoch, and passed a second night on the rocks, reaching Grindelwald next day.