He attended Leven Public School and then George Watsons College in Edinburgh (1896–99).
While being a student, he lodged with Mr Flockhart at 3 West Preston Street, Edinburgh.
[2] In 1910 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his contributions to mathematics and astronomy.
His proposers were George Chrystal, Sir Frank Watson Dyson, Cargill Gilston Knott and Ellice Horsburgh.
[3] During the First World War he worked on the Ballistic Department Ordnance Committee at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, remotely calculating complex gun angles to fire on hidden or obscured targets, such as at the Gallipoli peninsula.