He was born in Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London, and was brought up in Mile End. Educated at St Saviour's Grammar School, he was apprenticed to a stationer and printer and worked in the family firm of Waterlow and Sons, a large printing company employing over 2000 people. From that he moved into finance and became a director of the Union Bank of London. He was a Commissioner at the Great Exhibition in 1851 and a juror at the Paris International Exhibition in 1867, for which he was knighted.