 Unable to afford an army commission, he studied medicine in Dublin from 1882 to 1887 under auspices of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.In 1888 he qualified as a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons and Physicians, Edinburgh, and of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.Meredith decided to try for a passage to one of the colonies as a ship's doctor.