He attended Newtown State and Creswick Grammar schools before working at the family store at Allendale.

[1] He married Elizabeth Johnstone Gullan in Ballarat on 24 May 1898; the couple moved to Pitfield Plains in 1900 to expand the family business.

[5] He continued to support soldiers' issues, notably repatriation benefits, and criticised the method of bestowing Imperial honours.

[6] In the wake of the Great Depression he became drawn to Sir Otto Niemeyer's solution to the nation's financial situation.

[2] He was thus reunited with a number of former Labor members who favoured conscription in World War I; he had opposed it at the time.