After a period at Oxford House, Bethnal Green, he started ministerial training at Wells Theological College in 1906;[1] he was ordained in 1905.
[4] During World War I, he became an army chaplain (1915–1917); he moved from Bethnal Green to become Vicar of St James's Moor Park (Fulham, London; 1922–1924).
[1] Having married Nancy Ward (née Napier) in 1922 — they had three daughters —, from 1924 onwards, he was associated with Lewisham — firstly as Vicar until 1933, and additionally as a much-respected Rural Dean (1930–1932).
He was ordained and consecrated a bishop on St Andrew's Day (30 November) 1932 by Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Southwark Cathedral.
[7] At his memorial service he was described by Priestley Swain, Bishop of Burnley as “A man of great gifts, one of the most thoroughly human persons I have ever known”.