He was educated at Rishworth School,[citation needed] West Yorkshire, and, after a time working as a railway booking clerk, he went to Leeds University where he was awarded 1st Class BA in English in 1924 and a PhD in 1926.
In 1932, he became president of the Viking Club, a Leeds student society founded by J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon to which he had belonged.
In 1949 he succeeded Raymond Wilson Chambers as Quain Professor of English at University College London.
He built a printing press to demonstrate bibliographical problems, but it was destroyed in the bombing of UCL during the war.
He could be maddening alike in matters of scholarship and in personal relations, though one's irritation never lasted long".