He was born in Worksop in Nottinghamshire to coal miner John Machin and Martha Elizabeth Denman.
He was a coal miner, and around 1926 married Florence Shaw, with whom he had one son, Peter born in Australia in 1933.
He left England after the 1926 general strike and migrated to Australia around 1927, becoming a clerk and insurance agent.
From 1939 he worked for Footscray City Council, first as an assistant storeman and cost clerk.
A Labor Party member, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for Melbourne West Province in 1955.