 Born at Marlborough, Wiltshire on 8 May 1825, Price was the second son of Peninsula War veteran Captain David Molloy Price of the 36th Regiment, and Mary, "nee" Strong.His elder brother, who remained in England, was Dr. Richard Edmonds Price (1822-1900), M.R.C.S., a captain in the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry and a mayor of Marlborough.Seeking adventure and fortune in his own right, Price arrived in South Australia as a cabin passenger on the barque "Fortitude" in April 1842, just a month before his seventeenth birthday.