[3] He worked as an instructor at the Royal School of Military Engineering at Chatham, later transferring to surveying duties as a member of the General Staff.
In September 1900 he was appointed deputy assistant adjutant general (DAAG) at the War Office, and promotion to major followed on 25 July 1901.
Has taken part in several eclipse expeditions, West Africa (1893), Japan (1896), and India (1898), obtaining photographs of the flash and corona spectra with slit spectroscopes.
Author of the following papers: - 'The Determination of Terrestrial Longitudes by Photography' (Mem Roy Astron Soc; 1897); 'The Optical Distortion of a Doublet Lens' (Monthly Notices, Royal Astron Soc; 1899); 'The Geography of International Frontiers' (Geograph Journ, 1906); and in conjunction with Sir J Larmor: - 'The Irregular Movements of the Earth's Axis of Rotation: a Contribution towards the Analysis of its Causes' (Monthly Notices, Roy Astron Soc, 1906)He developed an interest in astronomy, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
He was recalled from a similar exercise in Russia at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and appointed Assistant Chief Engineer of Eastern Command.