He was educated at George Watson's College in Edinburgh at both primary (prep school) and secondary levels, 1925 to 1937.
He left Britain during the Second World War and continued studies at Imperial College, St Augustin, in Trinidad under a Vans Dunlop scholarship.
In Kenya, he served with the East-African Anti-Locust Directorate and several times ate Benzene Hexachloride (BHC) publicly to demonstrate that it was harmless to humans.
[1] In 1948, he resigned from African service and returned to Britain as a lecturer in agricultural zoology at the University of Nottingham.
His proposers were James Ritchie, Alexander David Peacock, Sir Michael Swann and Greville Friend.