He was born at Dantzig on 16 March 1830, the eldest son of William Ayerst, vicar of Egerton, Kent.
In 1861 he was appointed to a chaplaincy on the Bengal ecclesiastical establishment and was senior chaplain with the Khyber field force from 1879 to 1881, for which he was awarded the Afghanistan Medal.
[1] In 1896 Ayerst Hall had to close due to lack of funds and the property was transferred to the Catholic Church.
Attempts were made to obtain consecration but this was definitely refused by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Edward White Benson on 21 October 1891.
A later vicar of St James, Newton-in-the-Isle, (1935–1942) was Walter William Covey-Crump, a former student of Ayerst Hall.