[1][2] He was placed with a firm of architects, but early showed a strong taste for a theatrical career, which he adopted when about twenty-five years of age.
[2] In 1857 he joined a theatre company in Edinburgh, then under the management of Robert Henry Wyndham, his brother-in-law.
[2] He first attempted management during a summer season in 1862, when he rented the Edinburgh Royal from Wyndham, and opened with The Lady of the Lake.
After their marriage, they first appeared together at the Alexandra in Thomas Morton's farce A Roland for an Oliver, opening on 2 March 1874.
His period of management at the Alexandra, Liverpool, was rendered notable by a series of revivals of Shakespearean plays, including The Winter's Tale, Much Ado about Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Comedy of Errors In all his undertakings he was ably assisted by his wife, who survived him.