From November 1918 until August 1919 he served on the demobilisation board, assessing injuries in relation to potential war pensions.

On return to civilian life he took up a post as Assistant Lecturer in Physiology at University College, London.

In 1933 he continued in the same role for the University of Edinburgh (a far more prestigious location in his field),[citation needed] replacing Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schafer.

This period was far longer but this time was interrupted by the Second World War during which he was seconded to direct medical research at the Armoured Fighting Vehicles Training School, forming part of the Gunnery School at Lulworth Camp in southern England.

Their younger son Peter Daly was a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and was killed in a helicopter accident in 1959.