He held that chair from 1936 to 1962, except for a break during the war (from 1943 to 1945) when he was seconded to the Air Ministry Intelligence at MI6 headquarters.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1937 and awarded their Makdougall Brisbane Prize in 1952.
He was elected to the London Mathematical Society in 1929 and awarded their Senior Berwick Prize in 1978.
He was knighted in 1977 and awarded the Gold Medal of the Order of Polonia Restituta of Poland in 1978.
He had married Phyllis Harris of North Wales, with whom he had a son, the mathematician John D. M.