Charles Cotton OBE, FRSP(E), MRCS was a medical man who spend most of his professional career in Ramsgate (Physician to St Barnabas Convalescent Home, then Senior Physician at Ramsgate General Hospital). He retired in 1914 and moved to Canterbury where he was able to devote himself to archaeological and archival studies. He published many transcriptions and translations of documents from the Cathedral Arechives or relating to the Cathedral.

An obituary of Dr Cotton can be found in Archaeologia Cantiana, 51 (1940 for 1939), 232–4. His work at the Cathedral Library is discussed by Nigel Ramsay, 'The Cathedral Archives and Library' in: A History of Canterbury Cathedral, ed. P. Collinson, N. Ramsay, M. Sparks. (OUP 1995, revised edition 2002), 402–3.