[2] Born on 7 September 1807 in Sheerness, Kent, he was the third son of Thomas Warington (1773–1843), a ship's victualler and wine merchant,[1] and his wife Esther Elizabeth Eaton (1779–1861).

After a childhood spent in Portsmouth, Boulogne, and other places, he entered Merchant Taylors' school in 1818 and in 1822 was articled for five years to John Thomas Cooper, a lecturer in the medical schools of Aldersgate Street and Webb Street, and a manufacturer of potassium, sodium, iodine, and other then-rare chemical substances.

[1] In 1839 he started a movement to found the Chemical Society of London, convening the first meeting in 1841 and serving as its first Secretary for ten years.

[1] In 1846 he took part in the formation of the Cavendish Society, of which he was secretary for three years, and from then on had many engagements as chemical expert in legal cases.

[1] The "aquarium principle" was discovered by Warington, who worked out that plants added to water in a container would give off enough oxygen to support animals, so long as their numbers do not grow too large.