In 1804 he entered the medical service of the East India Company, but in the following year was transferred as surgeon to the royal navy.
Subsequently, when the squadron was becalmed in the Bay of Bengal, he contrived an apparatus for distilling water.
When attached to the Leyden in 1812–13 he was very successful in his treatment of the troops suffering from yellow fever at Cartagena and Gibraltar, and received the thanks of the commander-in-chief and the medical board.
He ultimately attained the rank of inspector-general of hospitals and fleets, and retired on a pension to a country practice near Barnstaple.
He died at Hornby Lodge, Newton Abbot, Devonshire, on 8 April 1873, and was buried at Wolborough.