He studied medicine at the University of London and practised in Somerset, England until 1896, when he returned to Australia, becoming a doctor and farmer at "Farnham Park" near Warrnambool.

[3][4][5][6] In 1902, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the seat of Villiers and Heytesbury[6] on a platform of "assisting in every practicable way the interests of the dairyman, the agriculturalist and the pastoralist" alongside support for the economic reforms of the Irvine government.

[11] His maiden speech, in March 1904, opposed proposals to increase House sitting days as it would be "too great a tax on businessmen's time".

[1][2] He attributed his defeat to "apathy and treachery" by anti-Labor supporters who thought he would win and did not assist him in the face of a strong Labor campaign and "misrepresentations and misunderstandings".

His Yuulong home was destroyed in bushfires in 1934, though he was still residing in the area in 1939 when he made a donation of 375 ferns to the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens.