He was born at Glasgow, Scotland, to master painter Archibald Anderson and Elizabeth Buchanan, née More.
He arrived in Australia in 1884, finding work as a grocer, agent and auctioneer in the Leichhardt area of Sydney.
He continued to work in the real estate and auctioneering business, and also established a brickworks in 1910.
In 1920 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Nationalist member for Ryde.
With the reintroduction of single-member districts in 1927 he was elected as the member for Eastwood, but he was defeated in 1930.