He worked in Newcastle for a decade, as Curate, St Peter's, Hamilton (1926–1928); Priest-in-Charge, All Saints, Belmont (1928–1929); as a teacher at Broughton School for Boys in Newcastle (1929–1932), where he was introduced to the anthropologist and priest A. P. Elkin; and as Curate to Elkin at St James' Church, Morpeth (1932–1935).
Encouraged by Elkin, he undertook a doctoral programme at the University of London in 1935, and graduating the following year with a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, with a thesis on The linguistic position of south-eastern Papua, which was published in book form in 1943.
When Elkin, then the Anglican rector at Morpeth, was appointed to a professorship in anthropology at Sydney, Capell served as his locum tenens in the parish.
[4] He was made an honorary canon of Ss Peter and Paul Cathedral, Dogura in 1956.
[3] The University of Sydney awards an annual prize in Capell's name for an essay on Australian and Pacific Linguistics.