[1] He started his working life as a knife-grinder, but took up sculpture with the encouragement of John Ruskin.

[2] In 1887 he modelled a terracotta frieze showing the processes of knife-grinding for the exterior of Cutlers' Hall, in Warwick Lane in the City of London.

[3] In the same year he made a frieze for Henry Heath's shop in Oxford Street, London, showing hat-makers at work.

He exhibited at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists in 1914, becoming an associate, and subsequently a member, of the RBSA, and eventually its Professor of Sculpture.

He lived at a house called Elmwood, in Jockey Road, Sutton Coldfield, then in Warwickshire.