He graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in 1929, MA in 1934, and BD in 1950 (a postgraduate degree awarded in recognition of his scholarship).
[3] From 1930 until 1933 he taught at the English Mission College in Cairo and after being ordained both deacon and priest in 1934 he embarked on a clerical career that was to last nearly 40 years.
He started his ordained ministry as chaplain and tutor at Wycliffe Hall before serving a curacy at St Aldate's Church, also in Oxford.
Many saw the appointment of such a cultured and urbane man to such a rural diocese as Salisbury as akin to "harnessing a racehorse to a farm cart,"[4] but he proved a distinctive success.
A "cultured man with some knowledge of literature",[5] he died in office and was succeeded by George Reindorp, previously Bishop of Guildford.