Charles Arkle was born in the West Derby district, the son of Benjamin Arkle, and educated at Liverpool College. He studied medicine at University College, London, qualifying in 1884 and winning the Atkinson-Morley surgical scholarship in 1885. He then visited the Berlin, Vienna and Paris schools and obtained house appointments in the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, University College Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children.

In 1892 he was appointed pathologist, and three years later assistant physician, with charge of the electrical department, at Charing Cross Hospital; here he taught bacteriology from 1893 to 1898 and practical medicine from 1895 to 1899. He was also elected assistant physician to the Brompton Hospital in 1897. Arkle, who was unmarried, was a keen Volunteer and served as surgeon to the Inns of Court Rifle Volunteers for the last five years of his life. He was an International rugby footballer and a mountaineer.

G H Brown

[Lancet, 1899; B.M.J., 1899]