He was born in Preston, Lancashire, an only son and elder child of John Lockwood, a stockbroker, and his wife, Elizabeth Speight.
In 1950, he became the Dean of London University's Faculty of Arts and later joined a committee administering relationship with African and West Indies colleges.
[2] He travelled widely forging links with colleges in the United States and former British colonies in East Africa.
The Government's terms of reference for this were: "To review the facilities for university...education in Northern Ireland...and to make recommendations".
However, the committee did make a recommendation for the location of a new university: Coleraine, a Protestant-dominated area in the east, and this was accepted by the Government.