He was educated at Cheam School and Eton College, where he acquired the nickname "Joe" after a sports writer watching him box in the final of the Public Schools Boxing Championship compared him to heavyweight champion Joe Beckett.
In 1933, however, he joined the Department of the Director of Public Prosecutions as a Professional Legal Clerk.
[1] In 1946 he was appointed secretary of the Metropolitan Police Office, ranking with the Assistant Commissioners (although a civilian).
In 1949 he spent three months in Malaya as a member of the Police Mission to advise the government on problems stemming from the Malayan Emergency.
He was knighted in the 1963 Birthday Honours,[4] shortly before his retirement, following which he became a director and joint vice-chairman of Securicor.