Arthur Neve was born in Brighton, Sussex, in 1859. He trained in medicine in Edinburgh, where he served as house-physician in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, then as Resident Medical Officer to the Livingstone Memorial Dispensary and Training Institution, under the Medical Missionary Society. In 1881 he was resident physician at 39 Cowgate, Edinburgh.

Joining the Church Missionary Society, Neve went to Kashmir in 1882 to work in the missionary hospital in Srinigar. He also worked at a leper hospital and spent much time climbing and exploring, particularly in the Karakorum Mountains, where he collected plants.

In 1915 Neve returned to Europe, where the First World War was in progress, and served at the Kitchener Hospital in Brighton. He was given the rank of Major, Royal Army Medical Corps. Later on he was transferred to the Dartford Military Hospital as surgical specialist and in 1918 worked in France.

In the spring of 1919 Neve returned to Kashmir but at the end of August was suddenly struck down by fever and died there in September.

Besides writing several medical papers published in The Lancet, Neve was the author of several books, including Kashmir, Ladakh and Tibet (1899), Picturesque Kashmir (1900), Thirty Years in Kashmir (1913) and The Tourist's Guide to Kashmir, Ladakh, Skardo &c (1923).

Sources:
Anon., 1919, The British Medical Journal, 2(3070): 584
T.G. Longstaff, 1919, "Obituary: Arthur Neve", The Geographical Journal, 54(6): 396-398
R.R. Stewart, 1982, "Missionaries and Clergymen as Botanists in India and Pakistan", Taxon, 31(1): 62.