He served as a commissioner on many public inquiries, including chairing the United Kingdom's Low Pay Commission (1997–2002; 2008–09), which introduced the National Minimum Wage in 1999, and the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund (1998–2002), an organisation offering support to victims of the Troubles.

[1] After attending state schools in Winnipeg, he entered the University of Manitoba in 1956, studying economics and political science, and graduated with a BA (Hons) in 1961 and an MA in 1964.

[1] While at the University of Manitoba, he joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve as an officer cadet, and served in various ships and establishments over a six-year period, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant in 1963.

He was a Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford in 1966-69 and the Frank Thomas Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1969–70.

He has privately published histories of nine families from which he is descended – three in Northern Ireland and six in Scotland – generally tracing them back to the middle of the eighteenth century.