[2] He was educated at Halifax Grammar School, where he graduated at age 14, then earned an arts degree with honours from University of King's College in 1868.

He then studied under Sandford Fleming, who as engineer-in-chief for the Intercolonial Railway, hired him to work on surveys in Nova Scotia.

He was elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain in 1876 and then attended McGill University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in common law, graduating with first class honours in 1880.

On July 9, 1880, he was called to the Quebec bar, and two years later he became a partner in the firm of Barnard, Beauchamp, Creighton, and Doucet of Montreal.

This experience and legal training led to his appointment on March 3, 1882, as law clerk to the Senate of Canada, a position he would hold for 48 years.

It was here that Creighton captained one of the two teams that participated in the first recorded indoor game of organized ice hockey on March 3, 1875.

"It was this exhibition which aroused city-wide interest and gave rise to the formation of other ice hockey teams and to the rapid development of the game," McGill's physical education director Emanuel M. Orlick would write in The Gazette in 1943.

While living and working in Ottawa, Creighton continued his interest in ice hockey and joined with young parliamentarians and government 'aides de camp' to form a team called the Rideau Hall Rebels, after the residence of the Governor General of Canada, in Ottawa.

[1] The Society for International Hockey Research mounted a public campaign during 2008 and 2009 to erect a monument on Creighton's grave site.