Walter Careless Freer (1819-?) of 71 New Hall Street, Birmingham, was born on 9th March 1819. His father was Edward Freer, of Digbeth and Edgbaston, bapt. 1788, himself the son of William Leacroft Freer, surgeon, of Stourbridge, bapt. 1755 in Birmingham. Walter Freer´s mother was Mary Careless, of Hereford.

Walter Freer entered his apprenticeship at the Sheffield Medical School under Robert Ernest in 1835, and served his full five years until 1840. From 1840 to 1842, the documents indicate that he attended lectures by Sir William Lawrence and others at St. Bartholomew´s Hospital in London. He then applied for a post at Hereford Infirmary, but appears to have been unsuccessful. The following year, he took courses in Dublin in midwifery, obstetrics and diseases of women and children. In 1843, he was successful in obtaining the post of Hon. Surgeon at Birmingham General Hospital, and in 1848 applied for the post of House Surgeon. The documents suggest that Freer continued to work in Birmingham until 1882.