Buddle built a scientific collection between 1890 and the 1940s consisting of 461 eggs and 41 other assorted items, and gave it to the Auckland War Memorial Museum in stages between 1931 and 1951.

[2] After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, Buddle was working in England as an engineer at the outbreak of World War I.

He joined the Royal Engineers,[3] taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign and travelling to the Western Front (the Somme and Arras).

Buddle was Acting Ornithologist at Auckland Museum while the curator was away on war service between 1943 and 1945.

He also took part in the solar-eclipse expedition to Canton Island on 8 June 1937, on which he collected specimens for the museum (among them invertebrates and birds).