[2] At three years of age, he and his sister Marie Louisa Andrews (died 1952),[3] were unofficially adopted by Wesleyan Methodist lay preacher and teacher John Andrews and his wife Mary Ann, née Bennett of Rockdale in the St George area of Sydney.
[5] He was appointed teacher with the Department of Public Instruction, and taught for four years at Milltown, a suburb of Bathurst,[2] where he was involved in competitive cycling[6] and chess.
In July 1899 he was appointed geological surveyor with the Department of Mines and Agriculture,[10] and around early 1909 Government Geologist.
Andrews wrote three important papers on the theory of erosion, including Corrasion by gravity streams.
He was survived by his second wife, Mabel Agnes (née Smith) and his unmarried sister, Mary Louisa Andrews.