His father Edward was a tanner, and immediately started a tanning business at Richmond on the banks of the Yarra.
He served a five-year apprenticeship with Albert Purchas, a Melbourne architect, then after a few years experience in the building trade joined the Victorian Education Department as a draftsman.
He was a keen and accomplished artist in oils and watercolor, and was a member of the short-lived Adelaide Art Circle (H. P. Gill was its president), then the Adelaide Easel Club and its successor, the South Australian Society of Arts, of which he served as president from 1921 to 1923.
Two particular friends were noted artists – James Ashton, with whom he spent a painting holiday every year, and Paris Nesbit, who died just a few days before him.
[3] He was a founder in 1912 of the Dual Club of Adelaide, and a contributor to its title (E Davies, C. A. Uhrlab, J. Ashton, and H. H. Ling.