Doe was born in Portland, Victoria, and educated at Warrnambool and moved to Mount Gambier, South Australia when he was eleven.
He moved to Broken Hill, New South Wales in about 1906 and worked as an estate agent.
He was a member of the Australian Labour Party, but was expelled in 1916 for supporting conscription.
In 1917, he was elected as a Nationalist to the seat of Murray in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
With the absorption of Murray into the multi-member electorate of Sturt in 1920, he became one of its members and held his seat until 1927.