[2][3] He was the eldest son of Rev Arthur Charles Copeman, Vicar of St Andrew's Norwich.

He was educated at Norwich School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge from which he graduated in 1882.

[1][4] He went on to undergo medical training at St Thomas' Hospital, London, qualifying in 1886.

In 1898 he delivered the Milroy Lecture on Vaccination – Its Natural History and Pathology, published as a book in the following year.

He was a member of Hampstead Borough Council, where he was chairman of the public health committee, and was elected to the London County Council as a Municipal Reform Party councillor representing Hampstead in 1934.