[1][2] Emery's early life was spent at Aylburton, close to the Forest of Dean, where his father was headmaster at the village school.

[3] At the end of this early schooling, Emery faced the hard choice in choosing a career direction, of either going into church, becoming an artist, or a doctor.

Fortunately Emery choose the latter, and accepted a position at University of Bristol, qualifying in 1939 with a MB ChB, with an interest in children diseases.

During World War II, the hospital was damaged by bombing,[6][7] Emery who was a paediatric Senior registrar at the time,[3] was in charge for a while, when it was evacuated to Weston-Super-Mare.

[2] After the war, in 1947, Emery was accepted to the position of Consultant Pathologist at the Sheffield Children's Hospital, that was a newly created post.

[4] In 1975 at the invitation of the White House, Emery travelled to America to conducted a research project to survey the community bereavement service in relation to cot death in seven U.S. states.

[4] A follow-up research project and survey produced information that lead to the back-to-sleep campaign that reduced the number of cot deaths in New Zealand by half.