Fison was born at
Barningham, Suffolk, England, the son of Thomas Fison, a prosperous landowner, and his wife Charlotte, a daughter of the Rev. John Reynolds, who was a translator of seventeenth-century religious writers. Fison was educated at a school at Sheffield, then at the
University of Cambridge where he studied with a tutor before becoming a student of
Caius College in June 1855. After a "boyish escapade" at college he left for Australia. His sister was
Anna Fison, translator and educator. ==Late life==