Sargant was born in London, the son of barrister and conveyancer Henry Sargant, and of Catherine Emma, daughter of
Samuel Beale. Among his siblings were the painter
Mary Sargant Florence and the botanist
Ethel Sargant. He was a precocious child, and was said to have taught himself to read at the age of three. He was educated at
Rugby School and
New College, Oxford, where he took
first-class honours in
classical moderations (1876), second-class honours mathematical moderations (1877), and first-class honours in
literae humaniores (1879). he was called to the bar at
Lincoln's Inn in 1882. After practicing as a conveyancer, he turned to court work. He was a fine draftsman, and two of his pupils,
Sir Frederick Francis Liddell and
Sir William Graham-Harrison, became
First Parliamentary Counsel. He was appointed junior counsel to the Treasury in equity matters in 1908 and was elected a
bencher of Lincoln's Inn the same year. He was said to not be very ambitious or industrious, and as a consequence he never took silk. Sargant was appointed a Justice of the
High Court of Justice in 1913 and was assigned to the
Chancery Division, receiving the customary
knighthood. After the First World War, Sargant chaired the
Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, but was forced to give up the chairmanship upon his promotion to the
Court of Appeal. He was appointed a
Lord Justice of Appeal in 1923 and was sworn of the
Privy Council. He resigned from the bench in 1928. After his retirement he chaired a
Board of Trade committee on patent law and practice and sat occasionally in the
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He died at his home in
Cambridge in 1942 and was buried in the
Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground. == Family ==