Born in British Guiana, now Guyana, he won a silver and a bronze medal at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

His father was John Edward London who worked as a school teacher and church minister and later as a medical practitioner.

He then won the bronze medal in the 4×100 metres relay with his teammates Cyril Gill, Edward Smouha and Walter Rangeley, behind the teams of the US and Germany.

He joined a 4×100 metre relay for England against Germany in 1931, but was not selected for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

After he retired from athletics, he became an entertainer, playing piano in the original cast of the Noël Coward's musical Cavalcade at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1931.

He also appeared in Will Hay's Gainsborough Pictures comedy Old Bones of the River in 1938 playing the character of M'Bapi.