Alfred Plummer was born in February 1841 at Heworth Vicarage in County Durham, the third son of the Reverend Matthew Plummer and his wife Louisa. He was educated at Lancing College in Sussex, and at Exeter College, Oxford, before becoming fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, from 1865, then Master of University College, Durham, from 1874 to 1902. He was ordained deacon in 1866, and married in 1874. He retired in 1902 and moved to Bideford in Devon.

As Master of University College, Durham, Plummer taught theology, with a particular interest in the gospel of Luke, and published a number of commentaries on Luke and other books, based on a detailed study of the Greek text. He wrote widely on church history, and published sermons and devotional works. Plummer also translated some of the works of the German theologian Ignaz von Döllinger, whom he visited fifteen times between 1870 and 1889.

Alfred Plummer died in April 1926.