He was born in Toorak to accountant Arthur stoughton Bloomfield and Ada Victoria McGuigan.
He attended Geelong Grammar School before entering Trinity College in 1921 while studying at Melbourne University, where he received a Bachelor of Law.
During World War II he served in the AIF in the Middle East and New Guinea, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
A member of the Liberal and Country Party, he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1953 in a by-election for the seat of Malvern.
In 1955 he joined the frontbench as Minister of Labour and Industry and of Electrical Undertakings, but he soon moved to the Education portfolio in February 1956, where he remained for eleven years.