He interrupted his studies to become an officer in the British Army during the First World War before he was forced to retire due to ill health.

After the war he completed his degree and joined an engineering firm where his work included the Silent Valley Reservoir in Northern Ireland.

[2] McNaughton began a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering at the University of St Andrews but his course was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War and he left in 1914 to enlist in the 2/2 Highland Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery.

McNaughton worked under the Chief Engineering Inspector, Sir Roger Gaskell Hetherington, and was responsible for conducting public enquiries for into water supplies, sewerage schemes, buildings, sea defences, river improvements and the use of Compulsory Purchase Orders.

[2] He was also involved in grant schemes to deprived areas, rural water supplies and air raid protection of essential engineering services.

[2] McNaughton had been elected vice president of the ICE in 1956 and sat on several of their committees, being particularly keen to improve the status of engineers in society.