He was educated at Christian Brothers College, Perth, and left school in 1897 for a job in the Western Australian Government Railways.
He stood for the Legislative Assembly seat of Toodyay in 1924 and 1927, on both occasions losing to fellow Country Party member and minister, John Lindsay.
In May 1935, he accepted the Country Party's nomination to contest a by-election for the seat of Avon following the death of Harry Griffiths.
He served as the member for Avon until the 1943 election, at which time he was defeated by a 15-vote margin by the Labor candidate William Telfer.
He appealed against the result to the Court of Disputed Returns, who ordered a fresh election, but Telfer won by 298 votes at the by-election on 1 June 1944.