He was unable to afford university and so worked for the Adelaide Advertiser as a copy boy and then as a clerk at the Union Bank of Australia.
He served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II as a radio and intelligence officer.
In 1957 he was expecting an appointment in Indonesia, but the dismissal of Alfred Deakin Brookes put his future in question and he resigned to work for the Crown Solicitor's Office.
[1] In 1969 he received a Winston Churchill Memorial Trusts Fellowship and visited Europe and the United States studying legal practices surrounding young offenders.
He then became London representative of the Attorney-General's Department, and in 1980 was appointed Chief Magistrate for the Australian Capital Territory.