Carlier was born in
Norwich, the only son of Marie and Antoine Guillaime Carlier. He was educated at the King Edward VI School in Norwich and then attended the Lycee de
Valenciennes in France. Later he graduated from the
University of Edinburgh where he gained an MD on hibernation in 1891 before also receiving a MSc degree from the
University of Birmingham. From 1895 he acted as assistant lecturer in physiology at the University of Edinburgh. In 1899 he received a professorship in Physiology from the University of Birmingham. He remained at the University until he retired in 1927. In 1898 he was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 1926 he was involved in the bicentenary celebrations of the Medical Faculty at the University of Edinburgh. In his spare time he was a keen butterfly collector. He died at Morningside in
Dorridge in Warwickshire on 2 September 1940. ==Family==